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ANTHROPOLOGY 


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By 

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NEW  YORK 

HARCOURT,  BRACE  AND  COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,  1923,  BY 
HARCOURT,  BRACE  AND  COMPANY,  INC 


PRINTED  IN  THE  U  S.  A.  BY 

THE  QUINN  &  BODEN  COMPANY 


PREFACE 


In  the  preparation  of  Chapters  II,  III,  and  VI  of  this  book  I 
have  drawn  on  a  University  of  California  syllabus,  “  Three  Es¬ 
says  on  the  Antiquity  and  Races  of  Man”;  for  Chapter  VII,  on 
an  article  “ Heredity,  Environment,  and  Civilization”  in  the 
American  Museum  Journal  for  1918;  and  Chapter  V  makes  use 
of  some  passages  of  “The  Languages  of  the  American  Indians” 
from  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  of  1911.  In  each  case  there 
has  been  revision  and  for  the  most  part  rewriting. 

Whatever  quality  of  lucidity  the  volume  may  have  is  due  to 
several  thousand  young  men  and  women  with  whom  I  have 
been  associated  during  many  years  at  the  University  of  Cali¬ 
fornia.  Without  their  unwitting  but  real  co-authorship  the  book 
might  never  have  been  written,  or  would  certainly  have  been 
written  less  simply. 


Berkeley,  California, 
January  22,  1923. 


A.  L.  K. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/anthropology00kroe_0 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

I.  Scope  and  Character  of  Anthropology . 

1.  Anthropology,  biology,  history. — 2.  Organic  and  social 
elements. — 3.  Physical  anthropology. — 4.  Cultural  anthro¬ 
pology. — 5.  Evolutionary  processes  and  evolutionistic 
fancies. — 6.  Age  of  anthropological  science. 

II.  Fossil  Man . 

7.  The  “Missing  Link.” — 8.  Family  tree  of  the  Primates. — 
9.  Geological  and  glacial  time. — 10.  Place  of  man’s  origin  and 
development. — 11.  Pithecanthropus. — 12.  Heidelberg  man. — 
13.  The  Piltdown  form. — 14.  Neandertal  man. — 15.  Rho¬ 
desian  man. — 16.  The  Cro-Magnon  race. — 17.  The  Brtinn 
race. — 18.  The  Grimaldi  race:  Neolithic  races. — 19.  The 
metric  expression  of  human  evolution. 

III.  Living  Races . 

20.  Race  origins. — 21.  Race  classification. — 22.  Traits  on 
which  classification  rests. — 23.  The  grand  divisions  or  pri¬ 
mary  stocks. — 24.  Caucasian  races. — 25.  Mongoloid  races. — 
26.  Negroid  races. — 27.  Peoples  of  doubtful  position. — 28. 
Continents  and  oceans. — 29.  The  history  of  race  classifica¬ 
tions. — 30.  Emergence  of  the  three-fold  classification. — 31. 
Other  classifications. — 32.  Principles  and  conclusions  com¬ 
mon  to  all  classifications. — 33.  Race,  nationality,  and  lan¬ 
guage. 

IV.  Problems  of  Race . 

34.  Questions  of  endowment  and  their  validity. — 35.  Plan 
of  inquiry. — 36.  Anatomical  evidence  on  evolutionary  rank. — 
37.  Comparative  physiological  data. — 38.  Disease. — 39. 
Causes  of  cancer  incidence. — 40.  Mental  achievement  and 
social  environment. — 41.  Psychological  tests  on  the  sense 
faculties. — 42.  Intelligence  tests. — 43.  Status  of  hybrids. — 
44.  Evidence  from  the  cultural  record  of  races. — 45.  Emo¬ 
tional  bias. — 46.  Summary. 

V.  Language  . 

47.  Linguistic  relationship:  the  speech  family. — 48.  Cri¬ 
teria  of  relationship. — 49.  Sound  equivalences  and  phonetic 
laws. — 50.  The  principal  speech  families. — 51.  Classification 
of  language  by  types. — 52.  Permanence  of  language  and 
race. — 53.  The  biological  and  historical  nature  of  lan¬ 
guage. — 54.  Problems  of  the  relation  of  language  and 


VI 

CHAPTER 


CONTENTS 


FAGE 


culture. — 55.  Period  of  the  origin  of  language. — 56.  Cul¬ 
ture,  speech,  and  nationality. — 57.  Relative  worth  of  lan¬ 
guages. — 58.  Size  of  vocabulary. — 59.  Quality  of  speech 
sounds. — 60.  Diffusion  and  parallelism  in  language  and  cul¬ 
ture. — 61.  Convergent  languages.— 62.  Unconscious  factors 
in  language  and  culture. — 63.  Linguistic  and  cultural  stand¬ 
ards. — 64.  Rapidity  of  linguistic  change. 


VI.  The  Beginnings  of  Human  Civilization . 137 

65.  Fossils  of  the  body  and  of  the  mind. — 66.  Stone  and 
metals. — 67.  The  old  and  the  new  stone  ages. — 68.  The 
Eolitliie  Age. — 69.  The  Palaeolithic  Age:  duration,  climate, 
animals. — 70.  Subdivisions  of  the  Palaeolithic. — 71.  Human 
racial  types  in  the  Palaeolithic. — 72.  Palaeolithic  flint  imple¬ 
ments. — 73.  Other  materials:  bone  and  horn. — 74.  Dress. — 

75.  Harpoons  and  weapons. — 76.  Wooden  implements. — 77. 

Fire. — 78.  Houses. — 79.  Religion. — 80.  Palaeolithic  art. — 81. 
Summary  of  advance  in  the  Palaeolithic. 

VII.  Heredity,  Climate,  and  Civilization . 180 

82.  Heredity. — 83.  Geographical  environment. — 84.  Diet. — 

85.  Agriculture. — 86.  Cultural  factors. — 87.  Cultural  dis¬ 
tribution. — 88.  Historical  induction. 

VIII.  Diffusion . 194 

89.  The  couvade. — 90.  Proverbs. — 91.  Geographic  distribu¬ 
tion. — 92.  The  magic  flight. — 93.  Flood  legends. — 94.  The 
double-headed  eagle. — 95.  The  Zodiac. — 96.  Measures. — 97. 
Divination. — 98.  Tobacco. — 99.  Migrations. 

IX.  Parallels . 216 

100.  General  observations. — 101.  Cultural  context. — 102. 
Universal  elements. — 103.  Secondary  parallelism  in  the  Indo- 
European  languages. — 104.  Textile  patterns  and  processes. — 

105.  Primary  parallelism:  the  beginnings  of  writing. — 106. 

Time  reckoning. — 107.  Scale  and  pitch  of  Pan’s  pipes. — 108. 
Bronze. — 109.  Zero. — 110.  Exogamic  institutions. — 111.  Par¬ 
allels  and  psychology. — 112.  Limitations  on  the  parallelistic 
principle. 

X.  The  Arch  and  the  Week . 241 

113.  House  building  and  architecture. — 114.  The  problem 
of  spanning. — 115  The  column  and  beam. — 116.  The  corbelled 
arch. — 117.  The  true  arch. — 118.  Babylonian  and  Etruscan 
beginnings. — 119.  The  Roman  arch  and  dome. — 120.  Mediae¬ 
val  cathedrals. — 121.  The  Arabs:  India:  modern  architecture. 

— 122.  The  week:  holy  numbers. — 123.  Babylonian  discovery 
of  the  planets. — 124.  Greek  and  Egyptian  contributions:  the 
astrological  combination. — 125.  The  names  of  the  days  and 
the  Sabbath. — 126.  The  week  in  Christianity,  Islam,  and 
eastern  Asia. — 127.  Summary  of  the  diffusion. — 128.  Month- 
thirds  and  market  weeks. — 129.  Leap  days  as  parallels. 


CONTENTS 


vii 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XI.  The  Spread  of  the  Alphabet . 263 

130.  Kinds  of  writing:  pictographic  and  mixed  phonetic. — 

131.  Deficiencies  of  transitional  systems. — 132.  Abbreviation 
and  conventionalization. — 133  Presumptive  origins  of  tran¬ 
sitional  systems. — 134.  Phonetic  writing:  the  primitive 
Semitic  alphabet. — 135.  The  Greek  alphabet:  invention  of  the 
vowels. — 136.  Slowness  of  the  invention. — 137.  The  Roman 
alphabet. — 138.  Letters  as  numeral  signs. — 139.  Reform  in 
institutions. — 140.  The  sixth  and  seventh  letters. — 141.  The 
tail  of  the  alphabet. — 142.  Capitals  and  minuscules. — 143. 
Conservatism  and  rationalization. — 144.  Gothic. — 145.  He¬ 
brew  and  Arabic. — 146.  The  spread  eastward:  the  writing 
of  India. — 147.  Syllabic  tendencies. — 148.  The  East  Indies: 
Philippine  alphabets. — 149.  Northern  Asia:  the  conflict  of 
systems  in  Korea. 


XII.  The  Growth  of  a  Primitive  Religion . 293 

150.  Regional  variation  of  culture. — 151.  Plains,  South¬ 
west,  Northwest  areas. — 152.  California  and  its  sub-areas. — 

153.  The  shaping  of  a  problem. — 154.  Girls’  Adolescence 
Rite. — 155.  The  First  Period. — 156.  The  Second  Period: 
Mourning  Anniversary  and  First-salmon  rite. — 157.  Era  of 
regional  differentiation. — 158.  Third  and  Fourth  Periods  in 
Central  California:  Kuksu  and  Hesi. — 159.  Third  and  Fourth 
Periods  in  Southern  California:  Jimsonweed  and  Chungich- 
nish. — 160.  Third  and  Fourth  Periods  on  the  Lower  Colo¬ 
rado:  Dream  Singing. — 161.  Northwestern  California:  world- 
renewal  and  wealth  display. — 162.  Summary  of  religious  de¬ 
velopment. — 163.  Other  phases  of  culture. — 164.  Outline  of 
the  culture  history  of  California. — 165.  The  question  of  dat¬ 
ing. — 166.  The  evidence  of  archaeology. — 167.  Age  of  the  shell 
mounds. — 168.  General  serviceability  of  the  method. 


XIII.  The  History  of  Civilization  in  Native  America  .  .  .  326 

169.  Review  of  the  method  of  culture  examination. — 170. 
Limitations  on  the  diffusion  principle. — 171.  Cultural  rank¬ 
ing. — 172.  Cultural  abnormalities. — 173.  Environmental  con¬ 
siderations. — 174.  Culture  areas. — 175.  Diagrammatic  repre¬ 
sentation  of  accumulation  and  diffusion  of  culture  traits. — 

176.  Representation  showing  contemporaneity  and  narrative 
representation. — 177.  Racial  origin  of  the  American  Indians. 

178.  The  time  of  the  peopling  of  America. — 179.  Linguistic 
diversification. — 180.  The  primitive  culture  of  the  immi¬ 
grants. — 181.  The  route  of  entry  into  the  western  hemi¬ 
sphere. — 182.  The  spread  over  two  continents. — 183.  Emer¬ 
gence  of  middle  American  culture:  maize. — 184.  Tobacco. — 

185.  The  sequence  of  social  institutions. — 186.  Rise  of  po¬ 
litical  institutions:  confederacy  and  empire. — 187.  Develop¬ 
ments  in  weaving. — 188.  Progress  in  spinning:  cotton. — 

189.  Textile  clothing. — 190.  Cults:  Shamanism. — 191.  Crisis 
rites  and  initiations. — 192. — Secret  societies  and  masks. — 

193.  Priesthood. — 194.  Temples  and  sacrifice. — 195.  Archi¬ 
tecture,  sculpture,  towns. — 196.  Metallurgy. — 197.  Calen- 


Vlll 

CHAPTER 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


dars  and  astronomy. — 198.  Writing. — 199.  The  several 
provincial  developments:  Mexico. — 200.  The  Andean  area. — 

201.  Colombia. — 202.  The  Tropical  Forest. — 203.  Patagonia. 

— 204.  North  America:  the  Southwest. — 205.  The  South¬ 
east. — 206.  The  Northern  Woodland. — 207.  Plains  area. — 

208.  The  Northwest  Coast. — 209.  Northern  marginal  areas. 

210.  Later  Asiatic  influences. 

XIV.  The  Growth  of  Civilization:  Old  World  Prehistory  and 

Archaeology . 393 

211.  Sources  of  knowledge. — 212.  Chronology  of  the  grand 
divisions  of  culture  history. — 213.  The  Lower  and  Upper 
Palaeolithic. — 214.  Race  influence  and  regional  differentiation 
in  the  Lower  Palaeolithic. — 215.  Upper  Palaeolithic  culture 
growths  and  races. — 216.  The  Palaeolithic  aftermath :  Azilian. 

217.  The  Neolithic:  its  early  phase. — 218.  pottery  and  the  bow. 

— 219.  Bone  tools. — 220.  The  dog. — 221.  The  hewn  ax. — 222. 

The  Full  Neolithic. — 223.  Origin  of  domesticated  animals  and 
plants.^ — 224.  Other  traits  of  the  Full  Neolithic. — 225.  The 
Bronze  Age:  Copper  and  Bronze  phases. — 226.  Traits  as¬ 
sociated  with  bronze. — 227.  Iron. — 228.  First  use  and  spread 
of  iron. — 229.  The  Hallstadt  and  La  Tene  Periods. — 230. 
Summary  of  Development:  Regional  differentiation. — 231. 

The  Scandinavian  area  as  an  example. — 232.  The  late  Palaeo¬ 
lithic  Ancylus  or  Maglemose  Period. — 233.  The  Early  Neo¬ 
lithic  Litorina  or  Kitchenmidden  Period. — 234.  The  Full 
Neolithic  and  its  subdivisions  in  Scandinavia. — 235.  The 
Bronze  Age  and  its  periods  in  Scandinavia. — 236.  Problems 
of  chronology. — 237.  Principles  of  the  prehistoric  spread  of 
culture. 

XV.  The  Growth  of  Civilization:  Old  World  History  and  Eth¬ 

nology  . 440 

238.  The  early  focal  area. — 239.  Egypt  and  Sumer  and 
their  background. — 240.  Predynastic  Egypt. — 241.  Culture 
growth  in  dynastic  Egypt. — 242.  The  Sumerian  development. 

- — 243.  The  Sumerian  hinterland: — 244.  Entry  of  Semites  and 
Indo-Europeans. — 245.  Iranian  peoples  and  cultures. — 246. 

The  composite  culture  of  the  Near  East. — 247.  Phoenicians, 
Aramaeans,  Hebrews. — 248.  Other  contributing  nationalities. 

— 249.  iEgean  civilization. — 250.  Europe. — 251.  China. — 252. 
Growth  and  spread  of  Chinese  civilization. — 253.  The  Lolos. 

— 254.  Korea. — 255.  Japan. — 256.  Central  and  northern  Asia. 

— 257.  India. — 258.  Indian  caste  and  religion. — 259.  Relations 
between  India  and  the  outer  world. — 260.  Indo-China. — 261. 
Oceania. — 262.  The  East  Indies. — 263.  Melanesia  and  Poly¬ 
nesia. — 264.  Australia. — 265.  Tasmania. — 266.  Africa. — 267. 
Egyptian  radiations. — 268.  The  influence  of  other  cultures. — 

269.  The  Bushmen. — 270.  The  West  African  culture-area  and 
its  meaning. — 271.  Civilization,  race,  and  the  future. 


Index 


507 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTBATIONS 


FIGURE  PAGE 

1.  The  descent  of  man:  diagram . 12 

2.  The  descent  of  man,  elaborated . 14 

3.  The  descent  of  man  in  detail,  according  to  Gregory  ....  16 

4.  The  descent  of  man  in  detail,  according  to  Keith  .  .  .  .  17 

5.  Antiquity  of  man:  diagram . 20 

6.  Fossil  and  modern  skull  outlines  superposed . 25 

7.  Measurements  made  on  fossil  skulls . 31 

8.  Relationship  of  the  races:  diagram . 47 

9.  Family  tree  of  the  human  races . 48 

10.  Map:  distribution  of  primary  racial  stocks . 50 

11.  Map:  circumpolar  distribution  of  the  races . 51 

12.  Map:  linguistic  families  of  Asia  and  Europe  .  .  .  ( facing )  94 

13.  Map:  linguistic  families  of  Africa . 97 

14.  Map:  principal  linguistic  families  of  North  America  ...  99 

15.  Map:  principal  linguistic  families  of  South  America  .  .  .  101 

16.  Map:  type  stations  of  the  Palaeolithic  periods . 153 

17.  Earliest  prehistory  of  Europe:  diagram . 156 

18.  Palaeolithic  flint  implements,  illustrating  the  principal  techniques  159 

19.  Flint  core  with  reassembled  flakes . 163 

20.  Aurignacian  sculpture:  human  figure . 173 

21.  Magdalenian  sculpture:  horse . 174 

22.  Magdalenian  engraving  of  a  mammoth  .  .  .  .  ,  .175 

23.  Magdalenian  engraving  of  a  herd . 176 

24.  Magdalenian  engraving  of  a  browsing  reindeer  .  .  .  .177 

25.  Growth  of  civilization  during  the  Palaeolithic:  diagram  .  .  178 

26.  Culture  distribution  and  history  in  the  Southwest:  diagram  .  191 

27.  Map:  diffusion  of  the  Magic  Flight  tale . 201 

28.  Maya  symbols  for  zero . 230 

29.  Map:  types  of  exogamic  institutions  in  Australia  ....  233 

30.  Map:  the  spread  of  alphabetic  writing  ....  ( facing )  284 

31.  Map:  culture-areas  of  native  California . 297 

32.  Map:  the  growth  of  rituals  in  native  California  ....  308 

ix 

\ 


X 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


FIGURE 

33.  Distribution  of  culture  elements  indicative  of  their  history: 

diagram . 

34.  Map:  culture-areas  of  America . 

35.  Occurrence  of  elements  in  the  culture-areas  of  America :  dia¬ 
gram  . ( facing ) 

36.  Development  of  American  civilization  in  time,  according  to 

Spinden:  diagram . ( facing ) 

37.  Map:  Europe  in  the  early  Lower  Palaeolithic . 

38.  Map:  Europe  in  the  Aurignacian  and  Lower  Capsian  . 

39.  Map:  Europe  in  the  Solutrean,  Magdalenian,  and  Upper  Capsian 

40.  Map :  Europe  in  the  Azilian  and  Terminal  Capsian 

41.  Prehistoric  corbelled  domes  in  Greece,  Portugal,  and  Ireland 

42.  Growth  and  spread  of  prehistoric  civilization  in  Europe,  accord¬ 

ing  to  Muller:  diagram . 


PAGE 

328 

337 

340 

342 

399 

401 

403 

409 

420 


436 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


CHAPTER  I 

SCOPE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  ANTHROPOLOGY 

1.  Anthropology,  biology,  history. — 2.  Organic  and  social  elements  — 
3.  Physical  anthropology. — 4.  Cultural  anthropology. — 5.  Evolutionary 
processes  and  evolutionistic  fancies. — 6.  Age  of  anthropological  science. 

1.  Anthropology,  Biology,  History 

Anthropology  is  the  science  of  man.  This  broad  and  literal 
definition  takes  on  more  meaning  when  it  is  expanded  to  “the 
science  of  man  and  his  works.  ’  ’  Even  then  it  may  seem 
heterogeneous  and  too  inclusive.  The  products  of  the  human 
mind  are  something  different  from  the  body.  And  these  prod¬ 
ucts,  as  well  as  the  human  body,  are  the  subjects  of  firmly 
established  sciences,  which  would  seem  to  leave  little  room  for 
anthropology  except  as  a  less  organized  duplication.  Ordinary 
political  history,  economics,  literary  criticism,  and  the  history 
of  art  all  deal  with  the  works  and  doings  of  man;  biology  and 
medicine  study  his  body.  It  is  evident  that  these  various 
branches  of  learning  cannot  be  relegated  to  the  position  of  mere 
subdivisions  of  anthropology  and  this  be  exalted  to  the  rank 
of  a  sort  of  holding  corporation  for  them.  There  must  be  some 
definite  and  workable  relation. 

One  way  in  which  this  relation  can  be  pictured  follows  to 
some  extent  the  course  of  anthropology  as  it  grew  into  self- 
consciousness  and  recognition.  Biology,  medicine,  history,  eco¬ 
nomics  were  all  tilling  their  fields  of  knowledge  in  the  nine¬ 
teenth  century,  some  with  long  occupancy,  when  anthropology 
shyly  entered  the  scene  and  began  to  cultivate  a  corner  here 
and  a  patch  there.  It  examined  some  of  the  most  special  and 

l 


2 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


non-utilitarian  aspects  of  the  human  body :  the  shape  of  the 
head,  the  complexion,  the  texture  of  the  hair,  the  differences 
between  one  variety  of  man  and  another,  points  of  negligible 
import  in  medicine  and  of  quite  narrow  interest  as  against  the 
broad  principles  which  biology  was  trying  to  found  and  fortify 
as  the  science  of  all  life.  So  too  the  historical  sciences  had  pre¬ 
empted  the  most  convenient  and  fruitful  subjects  within  reach. 
Anthropology  modestly  turned  its  attention  to  nations  without 
records,  to  histories  without  notable  events,  to  institutions 
strange  in  flavor  and  inventions  hanging  in  their  infancy,  to 
languages  that  had  never  been  written. 

Yet  obviously  the  heterogeneous  leavings  of  several  sciences 
will  never  weld  into  an  organized  and  useful  body  of  knowledge. 
The  dilettante,  the  collector  of  oddities  who  loves  incoherence, 
may  be  content  to  observe  to-day  the  flare  of  the  negro ’s  nostrils, 
to-morrow  the  intricacy  of  prefixes  that  bind  his  words  into 
sentences,  the  day  after,  his  attempts  to  destroy  a  foe  by  driving 
nails  into  a  wooden  idol.  A  science  becomes  such  only  when  it 
learns  to  discover  relations  and  a  meaning  in  facts.  If  anthro¬ 
pology  were  to  remain  content  with  an  interest  in  the  Mongolian 
eye,  the  dwarfishness  of  the  Negrito,  the  former  home  of  the 
Polynesian  race,  taboos  against  speaking  to  one’s  mother-in-law, 
rituals  to  make  rain,  and  other  such  exotic  and  superseded  super¬ 
stitions,  it  would  earn  no  more  dignity  than  an  antiquarian’s 
attic.  As  a  co-laborer  on  the  edifice  of  fuller  understanding, 
anthropology  must  find  more  of  a  task  than  filling  with  rubble 
the  temporarily  vacant  spaces  in  the  masonry  that  the  sciences 
are  rearing. 

The  other  manner  in  which  the  subject  of  anthropology  can 
be  conceived  is  that  this  is  neither  so  vast  as  to  include  every¬ 
thing  human,  nor  is  it  the  unappropriated  odds  and  ends  of  other 
sciences,  but  rather  some  particular  aspect  of  human  phenomena. 
If  such  an  aspect  exists,  anthropology  vindicates  its  unity  and 
attains  to  integrity  of  aim. 

2.  Organic  and  Social  Elements 

To  the  question  why  a  Louisiana  negro  is  black  and  thick 
lipped,  the  answer  is  ready.  He  was  born  so.  As  dogs  produce 


SCOPE  OF  ANTHROPOLOGY 


3 


pups,  and  lions  cubs,  so  negro  springs  from  negro  and  Cau¬ 
casian  from  Caucasian.  We  call  the  force  at  work,  heredity. 
The  same  negro  is  lazy  by  repute,  easy  going  at  his  labor.  Is 
this  too  an  innate  quality  ?  Off-hand,  most  of  us  would  reply : 
Yes.  He  sings  at  his  corn-hoeing  more  frequently  than  the  white 
man  across  the  fence.  Is  this  also  because  of  his  heredity  ?  ‘  ‘  Of 
course :  he  is  made  so,  ’  ’  might  be  a  common  answer ;  ‘  ‘  Probably : 
why  not  ?  ’  ’  a  more  cautious  one.  But  now  our  negro  is  singing 
Suwanee  River,  which  his  great-grandfather  in  Africa  assuredly 
did  not  sing.  As  regards  the  specific  song,  heredity  is  obviously 
no  longer  the  cause.  Our  negro  may  have  learned  it  from  an 
uncle,  perhaps  from  his  schoolmates;  he  can  have  acquired  it 
from  human  beings  not  his  ancestors,  acquired  it  as  part  of  his 
customs,  like  being  a  member  of  the  Baptist  church  and  wearing 
overalls,  and  the  thousand  other  things  that  come  to  him  from 
without  instead  of  from  within.  At  these  points  heredity  is  dis¬ 
placed  by  tradition,  nature  by  nurture,  to  use  a  familiar  jingle. 
The  efficient  forces  now  are  quite  different  from  those  that  made 
his  skin  black  and  his  lips  thick.  They  are  causes  of  another 
order. 

The  particular  song  of  the  negro  and  his  complexion  represent 
the  clear-cut  extremes  of  the  matter.  Between  them  lie  the 
sloth  and  the  inclination  to  melody.  Obviously  these  traits  may 
also  be  the  result  of  human  example,  of  social  environment,  of 
contemporary  tradition.  There  are  those  that  so  believe,  as  well 
as  those  who  see  in  them  only  the  effects  of  inborn  biological 
impulse.  Perhaps  these  intermediate  dubious  traits  are  the  re¬ 
sults  of  a  blending  of  nature  and  nurture,  the  strength  of  each 
factor  varying  according  to  each  trait  or  individual  examined. 
Clearly,  at  any  rate,  there  is  room  here  for  debate  and  evidence. 
A  genuine  problem  exists.  This  problem  cannot  be  solved  by 
the  historical  sciences  alone  because  they  do  not  concern  them¬ 
selves  with  heredity.  Nor  can  it  be  solved  by  biology  which 
deals  with  heredity  and  allied  factors  but  does  not  go  on  to 
operate  with  the  non-biological  principle  of  tradition. 

Here,  then,  is  a  specific  task  and  place  in  the  sun  for  anthro¬ 
pology:  the  interpretation  of  those  phenomena  into  which  both 
organic  and  social  causes  enter.  The  untangling  and  determina¬ 
tion  and  reconciling  of  these  two  sets  of  forces  are  anthropology’s 


4 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


own.  They  constitute,  whatever  else  it  may  undertake,  the 
focus  of  its  attention  and  an  ultimate  goal.  No  other  science 
has  grappled  with  this  set  of  problems  as  its  primary  end.  Nor 
has  anthropology  as  yet  much  of  a  solution  to  offer.  It  may  be 
said  to  have  cleared  the  ground  of  brush,  rather  than  begun 
the  felling  of  its  tree.  But,  in  the  terminology  of  science,  it 
has  at  least  defined  its  problem. 

To  deal  with  this  interplay  of  what  is  natural  and  nurtural, 
organic  and  social,  anthropology  must  know  something  of  the 
organic,  as  such,  and  of  the  social,  as  such.  It  must  be  able  to 
recognize  them  with  surety  before  it  endeavors  to  analyze  and 
resynthesize  them.  It  must  therefore  effect  close  contact  with 
the  organic  and  the  social  sciences  respectively,  with  “biology” 
and  “history,”  and  derive  all  possible  aid  from  their  contribu¬ 
tions  to  knowledge.  Up  to  the  present  time,  a  large  part  of  the 
work  of  anthropology  has  consisted  in  acquiring  the  fruits  of 
the  activity  of  these  sister  sciences  and  applying  them  for  its 
own  ends;  or,  where  the  needed  biological  and  historical  data 
were  not  available,  securing  them. 

3.  Physical  Anthropology 

The  organic  sciences  underlie  the  social  ones.  They  are  more 
directly  “natural.”  Anthropology  has  therefore  found  valuable 
general  principles  in  biology:  laws  of  heredity,  the  doctrines  of 
cell  development  and  evolution,  for  instance,  based  on  facts  from 
the  whole  range  of  life.  Its  business  has  been  to  ascertain  how 
far  these  principles  apply  to  man,  what  forms  they  take  in  his 
particular  case.  This  has  meant  a  concentration  of  attention, 
the  devising  of  special  methods  of  inquiry.  Many  biological 
problems,  including  most  physiological  and  hereditary  ones,  can 
be  most  profitably  attacked  in  the  laboratory,  or  at  least  under 
experimental  conditions.  This  method,  however,  is  but  rarely 
open  as  regards  human  beings,  who  must  ordinarily  be  observed 
as  they  are.  The  phenomena  concerning  man  have  to  be  taken 
as  they  come  and  laboriously  sifted  and  re-sifted  afterward, 
instead  of  being  artificially  simplified  in  advance,  as  by  the 
experimental  method.  Then,  too,  since  anthropology  was  operat¬ 
ing  within  the  narrow  limits  of  one  species,  it  was  driven  to 


SCOPE  OF  ANTHROPOLOGY 


5 


concern  itself  with  minute  traits,  such  as  the  zoologist  is  rarely 
troubled  with :  the  proportions  of  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
skull — the  famous  cephalic  index — for  instance ;  the  number  of 
degrees  the  arm  bones  are  twisted,  and  the  like.  Also,  as  these 
data  had  to  be  used  in  the  gross,  unmodifiable  by  artificially 
varied  conditions,  it  lias  been  necessary  to  secure  them  from 
all  possible  varieties  of  men,  different  races,  sexes,  ages,  and 
their  nearest  brute  analogues.  The  result  is  that  biological  or 
physical  anthropology — “Somatology”  it  is  sometimes  called  in 
Anglo-Saxon  countries,  and  simply  “anthropology”  in  conti¬ 
nental  Europe — has  in  part  constituted  a  sort  of  specialization 
or  sharpening  of  general  biology,  and  has  become  absorbed  to 
a  considerable  degree  in  certain  particular  phenomena  and 
methods  of  studying  them  about  which  general  biologists,  physi¬ 
ologists,  paleontologists,  and  students  of  medicine  are  usually 
but  vaguely  informed. 

4.  Cultural  Anthropology 

The  historical  or  social  sciences  overlie  the  organic  ones. 
Men’s  bodies  and  natural  equipment  are  back  of  their  deeds  and 
accomplishments  as  transmitted  by  tradition,  primary  to  their 
culture  or  civilization.  The  relation  oi  anthropology  to  his¬ 
torical  science  has  therefore  been  in  a  sense  the  opposite  of  its 
relation  to  biological  science.  Instead  of  specializing,  anthro¬ 
pology  has  been  occupied  with  trying  to  generalize  the  findings 
of  history.  Historians  cannot  experiment.  They  deal  with  the 
concrete,  with  the  unique ;  for  in  a  degree  every  historical  event 
has  something  unparalleled  about  it.  They  may  paint  with  a 
broad  sweep,  but  they  do  not  lay  down  exact  laws. 

Moreover,  history  inevitably  begins  with  an  interest  in  the 
present  and  in  ourselves.  In  proportion  as  it  reaches  back  in 
time  and  to  wholly  foreign  peoples,  its  interest  tends  to  flag  and 
its  materials  become  scant  and  unreliable.  It  is  commonly  con¬ 
sidered  useful  for  a  man  to  know  that  Napoleon  was  a  Corsican 
and  was  defeated  at  Waterloo  in  1815,  but  a  rather  pedantic 
piece  of  knowledge  that  Shi  Hwang-ti  was  born  in  northwestern 
China  and  unified  the  rule  of  China  in  221  B.C.  From  a  theo¬ 
retical  or  general  point  of  view,  however,  one  of  these  facts  is 


6 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


presumably  as  important  as  the  other,  for  if  we  wish  to  know 
the  principles  that  go  into  the  shaping  of  human  social  life  or 
civilization,  China  counts  for  as  much  as  France,  and  the  ancient 
past  for  as  much  as  the  nearby  present.  In  fact,  the  foreign  and 
the  old  are  likely  to  be  inquired  into  with  even  more  assiduity 
by  the  theoretically  minded,  since  they  may  furnish  wholly  new 
clues  to  insight,  whereas  the  subjects  of  conventional  history 
have  been  so  familiarized  as  to  hold  out  less  hope  of  novel  con¬ 
clusions  still  to  be  extricated  from  them. 

Here,  then,  is  the  cause  of  the  seeming  preoccupation  of 
social  or  cultural  anthropology  with  ancient  and  savage  and 
exotic  and  extinct  peoples:  the  desire  to  understand  better  all 
civilizations,  irrespective  of  time  and  place,  in  the  abstract  or 
in  form  of  generalized  principle  if  possible.  It  is  not  that  cave 
men  are  more  illuminating  than  Romans,  or  flint  knives  more 
interesting  than  fine  porcelains  or  the  art  of  printing,  that  has 
led  anthropology  to  bear  so  heavily  on  the  former,  but  the  fact 
that  it  wanted  to  know  about  cave  men  and  flint  knives  as  well 
as  about  Romans  and  printing  presses.  It  would  be  irrational 
to  prefer  the  former  to  the  latter,  and  anthropology  has  never 
accepted  the  adjudication  sometimes  tacitly  rendered  that  its 
proper  field  is  the  primitive,  as  such.  As  well  might  zoology 
confine  its  interest  to  eggs  or  protozoans.  It  is  probably  true 
that  many  researches  into  early  and  savage  history  have  sprung 
from  an  emotional  predilection  for  the  forgotten  or  neglected, 
the  obscure  and  strange,  the  unwonted  and  mysterious.  But 
such  occasional  personal  aesthetic  trends  can  not  delimit  the 
range  of  a  science  or  determine  its  aims  and  methods.  In¬ 
numerable  historians  have  been  inveterate  gossips.  One  does 
not  therefore  insist  that  the  only  proper  subject  of  history  is 
backstairs  intimacies. 

This,  then,  is  the  reason  for  the  special  development  of  those 
subdivisions  of  anthropology  known  as  Archaeology,  ‘  ‘  the  science 
of  what  is  old’’  in  the  career  of  humanity,  especially  as  revealed 
by  excavations  of  the  sites  of  prehistoric  occupation ;  and  Eth¬ 
nology,  ‘‘the  science  of  peoples,”  irrespective  of  their  degree 
of  advancement.1 

i  Ethnography  is  sometimes  separated,  as  more  descriptive,  from  Eth¬ 
nology  as  more  theoretically  inclined. 


SCOPE  OF  ANTHROPOLOGY 


7 


5.  Evolutionary  Processes  and  Evolutionistic  Fancies 

In  their  more  elementary  aspects  the  two  strands  of  the 
organic  and  the  social,  or  the  hereditary  and  environmental, 
as  they  are  generally  called  with  reference  to  individuals,  run 
through  all  human  life  and  are  distinguishable  as  mechanisms, 
as  well  as  in  their  results.  Thus  a  comparison  of  the  acquisition 
of  the  power  of  flight  respectively  by  birds  in  their  organic 
development  out  of  the  ancestral  reptile  stem  some  millions  of 
years  ago,  and  by  men  as  a  result  of  cultural  progress  in  the 
field  of  invention  during  the  past  generation,  reveals  at  once 
the  profound  differences  of  process  that  inhere  in  the  ambiguous 
concept  of  ‘ ‘evolution.”  The  bird  gave  up  a  pair  of  walking 
limbs  to  acquire  wings.  He  added  a  new  faculty  by  transform¬ 
ing  part  of  an  old  one.  The  sum  total  of  his  parts  or  organs 
was  not  greater  than  before.  The  change  was  transmitted  only 
to  the  blood  descendants  of  the  altered  individuals.  The  reptile 
line  went  on  as  it  had  been  before,  or  if  it  altered,  did  so  for 
causes  unconnected  with  the  evolution  of  the  birds.  The 
aeroplane,  on  the  contrary,  gave  men  a  new  faculty  without  im¬ 
pairing  any  of  those  they  had  previously  possessed.  It  led  to  no 
visible  bodily  changes,  nor  alterations  of  mental  capacity.  The 
invention  has  been  transmitted  to  individuals  and  groups  not 
derived  by  descent  from  the  inventors ;  in  fact,  has  already 
influenced  their  careers.  Theoretically,  it  is  transmissible  to 
ancestors  if  they  happen  to  be  still  living.  In  sum,  it  represents 
an  accretion  to  the  stock  of  existing  culture  rather  than  a  trans¬ 
formation. 

Once  the  broad  implications  of  the  distinction  which  this 
example  illustrates  have  been  grasped,  many  common  errors 
are  guarded  against.  The  program  of  eugenics,  for  instance, 
loses  much  of  its  force.  There  is  certainly  much  to  be  said  in 
favor  of  intelligence  and  discrimination  in  mating,  as  in  every¬ 
thing  else.  There  is  need  for  the  acquisition  of  exacter  knowl¬ 
edge  on  human  heredity.  But,  in  the  main,  the  claims  some¬ 
times  made  that  eugenics  is  necessary  to  preserve  civilization 
from  dissolution,  or  to  maintain  the  flourishing  of  this  or  that 
nationality,  rest  on  the  fallacy  of  recognizing  only  organic  causes 
as  operative,  when  social  as  well  as  organic  ones  are  active — 


8 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


when  indeed  the  social  factors  may  be  much  the  more  powerful 
ones.  So,  in  what  are  miscalled  race  problems,  the  average 
thought  of  the  day  still  reasons  largely  from  social  effects  to 
organic  causes  and  perhaps  vice  versa.  Anthropology  is  by  no 
means  yet  in  a  position  to  state  just  where  the  boundary  between 
the  contributing  organic  and  social  causes  of  such  phenomena 
lies.  But  it  does  hold  to  their  fundamental  distinctness  and  to 
the  importance  of  this  distinctness,  if  true  understanding  is 
the  aim.  Without  sure  grasp  of  this  principle,  many  of  the 
arguments  and  conclusions  in  the  present  volume  will  lose  their 
significance. 

Accordingly,  the  designation  of  anthropology  as  “the  child 
of  Darwin”  is  most  misleading.  Darwin’s  essential  achievement 
was  that  he  imagined,  and  substantiated  by  much  indirect  evi¬ 
dence,  a  mechanism  through  which  organic  evolution  appeared 
to  be  taking  place.  The  whole  history  of  man  however  being 
much  more  than  an  organic  matter,  a  pure  Darwinian  anthro¬ 
pology  would  be  largely  misapplied  biology.  One  might  almost 
as  justly  speak  of  a  Copernican  or  Newtonian  anthropology. 

What  has  greatly  influenced  anthropology,  mainly  to  its 
damage,  has  been  not  Darwinism,  but  the  vague  idea  of  evolu¬ 
tion,  to  the  organic  aspect  of  which  Darwin  gave  such  substance 
that  the  whole  group  of  evolutionistic  ideas  has  luxuriated 
rankly  ever  since.  It  became  common  practice  in  social  anthro¬ 
pology  to  “explain”  any  part  of  human  civilization  by  arrang¬ 
ing  its  several  forms  in  an  evolutionary  sequence  from  lowest 
to  highest  and  allowing  each  successive  stage  to  flow  spontane¬ 
ously  from  the  preceding — in  other  words,  without  specific  cause. 
At  bottom  this  logical  procedure  was  astonishingly  naive.  We 
of  our  land  and  day  stood  at  the  summit  of  the  ascent,  in  these 
schemes.  Whatever  seemed  most  different  from  our  customs 
was  therefore  reckoned  as  earliest,  and  other  phenomena  dis¬ 
posed  wherever  they  would  best  contribute  to  the  straight  even¬ 
ness  of  the  climb  upward.  The  relative  occurrence  of  phe¬ 
nomena  in  time  and  space  was  disregarded  in  favor  of  their 
logical  fitting  into  a  plan.  It  was  argued  that  since  we  hold 
to  definitely  monogamous  marriage,  the  beginnings  of  human 
sexual  union  probably  lay  in  indiscriminate  promiscuity.  Since 
we  accord  precedence  to  descent  from  the  father,  and  generally 


SCOPE  OF  ANTHROPOLOGY 


9 


know  him,  early  society  must  have  reckoned  descent  from  the 
mother  and  no  one  knew  his  father.  We  abhor  incest;  therefore 
the  most  primitive  men  normally  married  their  sisters.  These 
are  fair  samples  of  the  conclusions  or  assumptions  of  the  classic 
evolutionistic  school  of  anthropology,  whose  roster  was  graced 
by  some  of  the  most  illustrious  names  in  the  science.  Needless 
to  say,  these  men  tempered  the  basic  crudity  of  their  opinions 
by  wide  knowledge,  acuity  or  charm  of  presentation,  and  fre¬ 
quent  insight  and  sound  sense  in  concrete  particulars.  In  their 
day,  a  generation  or  two  ago,  under  the  spell  of  the  concept 
of  evolution  in  its  first  flush,  such  methods  of  reasoning  were 
almost  inevitable.  To-day  they  are  long  threadbare,  descended 
to  material  for  newspaper  science  or  idle  speculation,  and  evi¬ 
dence  of  a  tendency  toward  the  easy  smugness  of  feeling  one¬ 
self  superior  to  all  the  past.  These  ways  of  thought  are  men¬ 
tioned  here  only  as  an  example  of  the  beclouding  that  results 
from  baldly  transferring  biologically  legitimate  concepts  into  the 
realm  of  history,  or  viewing  this  as  unfolding  according  to  a 
simple  plan  of  progress. 

6.  Age  of  Anthropologic2Vl  Science 

The  foregoing  exposition  will  make  clear  why  anthropology  is 
generally  regarded  as  one  of  the  newer  sciences — why  its  chairs 
are  few,  its  places  in  curricula  of  education  scattered.  As  an 
organized  science,  with  a  program  and  a  method  of  its  own,  it 
is  necessarily  recent  because  it  could  not  arise  until  the  biological 
and  social  sciences  had  both  attained  enough  organized  develop¬ 
ment  to  come  into  serious  contact. 

On  the  other  hand,  as  an  unmethodical  body  of  knowledge, 
as  an  interest,  anthropology  is  plainly  one  of  the  oldest  of  the 
sisterhood  of  sciences.  How  could  it  well  be  otherwise  than 
that  men  were  at  least  as  much  interested  in  each  other  as  in 
the  stars  and  mountains  and  plants  and  animals?  Every  savage 
is  a  bit  of  an  ethnologist  about  neighboring  tribes  and  knows  a 
legend  of  the  origin  of  mankind.  Herodotus,  the  “father  of 
history,”  devoted  half  of  his  nine  books  to  pure  ethnology,  and 
Lucretius,  a  few  centuries  later,  tried  to  solve  by  philosophical 
deduction  and  poetical  imagination  many  of  the  same  problems 


10 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


that  modern  anthropology  is  more  cautiously  attacking  with  the 
methods  of  science.  In  neither  chemistry  nor  geology  nor  biology 
was  so  serious  an  interest  developed  as  in  anthropology,  until 
nearly  two  thousand  years  after  these  ancients. 

In  the  pages  that  follow,  the  central  anthropological  problems 
that  concern  the  relations  of  the  organic  and  cultural  factors  in 
man  will  be  defined  and  solutions  offered  to  the  degree  that  they 
seem  to  have  been  validly  determined.  On  each  side  of  this 
goal,  however,  stretches  an  array  of  more  or  less  authenticated 
formulations,  of  which  some  of  the  more  important  will  be  re¬ 
viewed.  On  the  side  of  the  organic,  consideration  will  tend 
largely  to  matters  of  fact ;  in  the  sphere  of  culture,  processes  can 
here  and  there  be  illustrated;  in  accord  with  the  fact  that 
anthropology  rests  upon  biological  and  underlies  purely  his¬ 
torical  science. 


CHAPTER  II 


FOSSIL  MAN 

7.  The  “Missing  Link.” — 8  Family  tree  of  the  Primates. — 9.  Geo¬ 
logical  and  glacial  time. — 10.  Place  of  man’s  origin  and  development. — 
11.  Pithecanthropus. — 12.  Heidelberg  man. — 13.  The  Piltdown  form. — 14. 
Neandertal  man. — 15.  Rhodesian  man. — 16.  The  Cro-Magnon  race. — 17. 
The  Briinn  race. — 18.  The  Grimaldi  race:  Neolithic  races. — 19.  The 
metric  expression  of  human  evolution. 

7.  The  “Missing  Link” 

No  modern  zoologist  has  the  least  doubt  as  to  the  general  fact 
of  organic  evolution.  Consequently  anthropologists  take  as  their 
starting  point  the  belief  in  the  derivation  of  man  from  some 
other  animal  form.  There  is  also  no  question  as  to  where  in  a 
general  way  man’s  ancestry  is  to  be  sought.  He  is  a  mammal 
closely  allied  to  the  other  mammals,  and  therefore  has  sprung 
from  some  mammalian  type.  His  origin  can  be  specified  even 
more  accurately.  The  mammals  fall  into  a  number  of  fairly 
distinct  groups,  such  as  the  Carnivores  or  flesh-eating  animals, 
the  Ungulates  or  hoofed  animals,  the  Rodents  or  gnawing  ani- 

t 

mals,  the  Cetaceans  or  whales,  and  several  others.  The  highest 
of  these  mammalian  groups,  as  usually  reckoned,  is*the  Primate 
or  “first”  order  of  the  animal  kingdom.  This  Primate  group 
includes  the  various  monkeys  and  apes  and  man.  The  ancestors 
of  the  human  race  are  therefore  to  be  sought  somewhere  in  the 
order  of  Primates,  past  or  present. 

The  popular  but  inaccurate  expression  of  this  scientific  con¬ 
viction  is  that  “man  is  descended  from  the  monkeys,”  but  that 
a  link  has  been  lost  in  the  chain  of  descent :  the  famous  4  ‘  missing 
link.”  In  a  loose  way  this  statement  reflects  modern  scientific 
opinion;  but  it  certainly  is  partly  erroneous.  Probably  not  a 
single  authority  maintains  to-day  that  man  is  descended  from 
any  species  of  monkey  now  living.  What  students  during  the 
past  sixty  years  have  more  and  more  come  to  be  convinced  of, 

was  already  foreshadowed  by  Darwin :  namely  that  man  and  the 

II 


12 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


apes  are  both  descended  from  a  common  ancestor.  This  common 
ancestor  may  be  described  as  a  primitive  Primate,  who  differed 
in  a  good  many  details  both  from  the  monkeys  and  from  man, 
and  who  has  probably  long  since  become  extinct. 

The  situation  may  be  clarified  by  two  diagrams  (Fig.  1).  The 
first  diagram  represents  the  inaccurate  view  which  puts  the 
monkey  at  the  bottom  of  the  line  of  descent,  man  at  the  top,  and 
the  missing  link  in  the  middle  of  the  straight  line.  The  illogi¬ 
cality  of  believing  that  our  origin  occurred  in  this  manner  is 


Fig.  1.  Erroneous  (left)  and  more  valid  (right) 
the  descent  of  man. 


representation  of 


apparent  as  soon  as  one  reflects  that  according  to  this  scheme 
the  monkey  at  the  beginning  and  man  at  the  end  of  the  line 
still  survive,  whereas  the  “missing  link,”  which  is  supposed  to 
have  connected  them,  has  become  extinct. 

Clearly  the  relation  must  be  different.  Whatever  the  missing 
link  may  have  been,  the  mere  fact  that  he  is  not  now  alive  on 
earth  means  that  we  must  construct  our  diagram  so  that  it  will 
indicate  his  past  existence  as  compared  with  the  survival  of  man 
and  the  apes.  This  means  that  the  missing  link  must  be  put 
lower  in  the  figure  than  man  and  the  apes,  and  our  illustration 
therefore  takes  on  the  form  shown  in  the  right  half  of  figure  1, 
which  may  be  described  as  Y-shaped.  The  stem  of  the  Y  de- 


l 


FOSSIL  MAN 


13 


notes  the  pre-ancestral  forms  leading  back  into  other  mammalian 
groups  and  through  them — if  carried  far  enough  down — to  the 
amphibians  and  invertebrates.  The  missing  link  comes  at  the 
fork  of  the  Y.  He  represents  the  last  point  at  which  man  and 
the  monkeys  were  still  one,  and  beyond  which  they  separated 
and  became  different.  It  is  just  because  the  missing  link  rep¬ 
resented  the  last  common  form  that  he  was  the  link  between  man 
and  the  monkeys.  From  him  onwards,  the  monkeys  followed 
their  own  course,  as  indicated  by  the  left-hand  branch  of  the 
Y,  and  man  went  his  separate  way  along  the  right-hand  branch. 

8.  Family  Tree  of  the  Primates 

While  this  second  diagram  illustrates  the  most  essential  ele¬ 
ments  in  modern  belief  as  to  man’s  origin,  it  does  not  of  course 
pretend  to  give  the  details.  To  make  the  diagram  at  all  precise, 
the  left  fork  of  the  Y,  which  here  stands  for  the  monkeys  as  a 
group — in  other  words,  represents  all  the  living  Primates  other 
than  man — would  have  to  be  denoted  by  a  number  of  branching 
and  subdividing  lines.  Each  of  the  main  branches  would  rep¬ 
resent  one  of  the  four  or  five  subdivisions  or  4 ‘families”  of  the 
Primates,  such  as  the  Anthropoid  or  manlike  apes,  and  the 
Cebidae  or  South  American  monkeys.  The  finer  branches  would 
stand  for  the  several  genera  and  species  in  each  of  these  families. 
For  instance,  the  Anthropoid  line  would  split  into  four,  standing 
respectively  for  the  Gibbon,  Orang-utan,  Chimpanzee,  and 
Gorilla. 

The  fork  of  the  Y  representing  man  would  not  branch  and 
rebranch  so  intricately  as  the  fork  representing  the  monkeys. 
Many  zoologists  regard  all  the  living  varieties  of  man  as  con¬ 
stituting  a  single  species,  while  even  those  who  are  inclined  to 
recognize  several  species  limit  the  number  of  these  species  to 
three  or  four.  Then  too  the  known  extinct  varieties  of  man  are 
comparatively  few.  There  is  some  doubt  whether  these  human 
fossil  types  are  to  be  reckoned  as  direct  ancestors  of  modern 
man,  and  therefore  as  mere  points  in  the  main  human  line  of 
our  diagram;  or  whether  they  are  to  be  considered  as  having 
been  ancient  collateral  relatives  who  split  off  from  the  main  line 
of  human  development.  In  the  latter  event,  their  designation 


14 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


in  the  diagram  would  have  to  be  by  shorter  lines  branching  out 
of  the  human  fork  of  the  Y. 

This  subject  quickly  becomes  a  technical  problem  requiring 
rather  refined  evidence  to  answer.  In  general,  prevailing  opinion 
looks  upon  the  later  fossil  ancestors  of  man  as  probably  direct 
or  true  ancestors,  but  tends  to  regard  the  earlier  of  these  extinct 
forms  as  more  likely  to  have  been  collateral  ones.  This  verdict 
applies  with  particular  force  to  the  earliest  of  all,  the  very  one 
which  comes  nearest  to  fulfilling  the  popular  idea  of  the  missing 

APES  MAN 


i 

I 

Fig.  2.  The  descent  of  man,  elaborated  over  Figure  1.  For  further 
ramifications,  see  Figures  3,  4,  9. 

link :  the  so-called  Pithecanthropus  erectus.  If  the  Pithecan¬ 
thropus  were  truly  the  missing  link,  he  would  have  to  be  put 
at  the  exact  crotch  of  the  Y.  Since  he  is  recognized,  however, 
as  a  form  more  or  less  ancestral  to  man,  and  somewhat  less 
ancestral  to  the  apes,  he  should  probably  be  placed  a  short  dis¬ 
tance  up  on  the  human  stem  of  the  Y,  or  close  alongside  it.  On 
the  other  hand,  inasmuch  as  most  palaeontologists  and  compara¬ 
tive  anatomists  believe  that  Pithecanthropus  was  not  directly 
ancestral  to  us,  in  the  sense  that  no  living  men  have  Pithecan¬ 
thropus  blood  flowing  in  their  veins,  he  would  therefore  be  an 
ancient  collateral  relative  of  humanity — a  sort  of  great-great- 


FOSSIL  MAN 


15 


granduncle — and  would  be  best  represented  by  a  short  stub 
coming  out  of  the  human  line  a  little  above  its  beginning 
(Fig.  2). 

Even  this  figure  is  not  complete,  since  it  is  possible  that  some 
of  the  fossil  types  which  succeeded  Pithecanthropus  in  point  of 
time,  such  as  the  Heidelberg  and  Piltdown  men,  were  also  col¬ 
lateral  rather  than  direct  ancestors.  Some  place  even  the  later 
Neandertal  man  in  the  collateral  class.  It  is  only  when  the  last 
of  the  fossil  types,  the  Cro-Magnon  race,  is  reached,  that  opinion 
becomes  comparatively  unanimous  that  this  is  a  form  directly 
ancestral  to  us.  For  accuracy,  therefore,  figure  2  might  be  re¬ 
vised  by  the  addition  of  other  short  lines  to  represent  the  several 
earlier  fossil  types:  these  would  successively  spring  from  the 
main  human  line  at  higher  and  higher  levels. 

In  order  not  to  complicate  unnecessarily  the  fundamental 
facts  of  the  case — especially  since  many  data  are  still  interpreted 
somewhat  variously — no  attempt  will  be  made  here  to  construct 
such  a  complete  diagram  as  authoritative.  Instead,  there  are 
added  reproductions  of  the  family  tree  of  man  and  the  apes 
as  the  lineages  have  been  worked  out  independently  by  two 
authorities  (Figs.  3,  4).  It  is  clear  that  these  two  family  trees 
are  in  substantial  accord  as  regards  their  main  conclusions, 
but  that  they  show  some  variability  in  details.  This  condition 
reflects  the  present  state  of  knowledge.  All  experts  are  in  accord 
as  to  certain  basic  principles;  but  it  is  impassible  to  find  two 
authors  who  agree  exactly  in  their  understanding  of  the  less 
important  data. 

9.  Geological  and  Glacial  Time 

A  remark  should  be  made  here  as  to  the  age  of  these  ancestral 
forms.  The  record  of  life  on  earth,  as  known  from  the  fossils 
in  stratified  rocks,  is  divided  into  four  great  periods.  The 
earliest,  the  Primary  or  Palaeozoic ,  comprises  about  two-thirds 
of  the  total  lapse  of  geologic  time.  During  the  Palaeozoic  all 
the  principal  divisions  of  invertebrate  animals  came  into  exist¬ 
ence,  but  of  the  vertebrates  only  the  fishes.  In  the  Secondary 
or  Mesozoic  period,  evolution  progressed  to  the  point  where 
reptiles  were  the  highest  and  dominant  type,  and  the  first  feeble 


Fig.  3.  The  descent  of  man  in  detail,  according  to  Gregory  (some¬ 
what  simplified).  Extinct  forms:  1,  Parapithecus ;  2,  Propliopithecus ; 
3,  Palaeosimia;  4,  Sivapithecus ;  5,  Dryopithecus ;  6,  Pakeopithecus ; 
7,  Pliopithecus ;  P,  Pithecanthropus  erectus;  H,  Homo  Heidelbergensis ; 
N,  Homo  Neandertalensis. 


Fig.  4.  The  descent  of  man  in  detail,  according  to  Keith  (somewhat 
simplified).  Extinct  forms:  2,  5,  6,  7  as  in  Figure  3;  Pithecan¬ 
thropus),  Pilt(down),  Neand(ertal).  Living  forms:  Gb,  Or,  Ch,  Go, 
the  anthropoid  apes  as  in  Figure  3, 


18 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


bird  and  mammal  forms  appeared.  The  Mesozoic  embraces  most 
of  the  remaining  third  or  so  of  the  duration  of  life  on  the  earth, 
leaving  only  something  like  five  million  years  for  the  last  two 
periods  combined,  as  against  thirty,  fifty,  ninety,  or  four  hun¬ 
dred  million  years  that  the  Palaeozoic  and  Mesozoic  are  variously 
estimated  to  have  lasted. 

These  last  five  million  years  or  so  of  the  earth’s  history  are 
divided  unequally  between  the  Tertiary  or  Age  of  Mammals,  and 
the  Quaternary  or  Age  of  Man.  About  four  million  years  are 
usually  assigned  to  the  Tertiary  with  its  subdivisions,  the 
Eocene,  Oligocene,  Miocene,  and  Pliocene.  The  Quaternary  was 
formerly  reckoned  by  geologists  to  have  lasted  only  about  a  hun¬ 
dred  thousand  years.  Later  this  estimate  was  raised  to  four  or 
five  hundred  thousand,  and  at  present  the  prevailing  opinion 
tends  to  put  it  at  about  a  million  years.  There  are  to  be  recog¬ 
nized,  then,  a  four  million  year  Age  of  Mammals  before  man, 
or  even  any  definitely  pre-human  form,  had  appeared ;  and  a 
final  period  of  about  a  million  years  during  which  man  gradually 
assumed  his  present  bodily  and  mental  type.  In  this  Quaternary 
period  fall  all  the  forms  which  are  treated  in  the  following 
pages. 

The  Quaternary  is  usually  subdivided  into  two  periods,  the 
Pleistocene  and  the  Recent.  The  Recent  is  very  short,  perhaps 
not  more  than  ten  thousand  years.  It  represents,  geologically 
speaking,  the  mere  instant  which  has  elapsed  since  the  final  dis¬ 
appearance  of  the  great  glaciers.  It  is  but  little  longer  than 
historic  time;  and  throughout  the  Recent  there  are  encountered 
only  modern  forms  of  man.  Back  of  it,  the  much  longer 
Pleistocene  is  often  described  as  the  Ice  Age  or  Glacial  Epoch ; 
and  both  in  Europe  and  North  America  careful  research  has 
succeeded  in  demonstrating  four  successive  periods  of  increase 
of  the  ice.  In  Europe  these  are  generally  known  as  the  Gunz, 
Mindel,  Riss,  and  Wurrn  glaciations.  The  probable  American 
equivalents  are  the  Nebraskan,  Kansan,  Illinoian,  and  Wisconsin 
periods  of  ice  spread.  Between  each  of  these  four  came  a  warmer 
period  when  the  ice  melted  and  its  sheets  receded.  These  are 
the  “interglacial  periods”  and  are  designated  as  the  first, 
second,  and  third.  These  glacial  and  interglacial  periods  are  of 
importance  because  they  offer  a  natural  chronology  or  time  scale 


FOSSIL  MAN 


19 


for  the  Pleistocene,  and  usually  provide  the  best  means  of  dating 
the  fossil  human  types  that  have  been  or  may  hereafter  be 
discovered  (Fig.  5). 

10.  Place  of  Man’s  Origin  and  Development 

Before  we  proceed  to  the  fossil  finds  themselves,  we  must  note 
that  the  greater  part  of  the  surface  of  the  earth  has  been  very 
imperfectly  explored.  Africa,  Asia,  and  Australia  may  quite 
conceivably  contain  untold  scientific  treasures  which  have  not 
yet  been  excavated.  One  cannot  assert  that  they  are  lying  in 
the  soil  or  rocks  of  these  continents ;  but  one  also  cannot  affirm 
that  they  are  not  there.  North  and  South  America  have  been 
somewhat  more  carefully  examined,  at  least  in  certain  of  their 
areas,  but  with  such  regularly  negative  results  that  the  pre¬ 
vailing  opinion  now  is  that  these  two  continents — possibly 
through  being  shut  off  by  oceans  or  ice  masses  from  the  eastern 
hemisphere — were  not  inhabited  by  man  during  the  Pleistocene. 
The  origin  of  the  human  species  cannot  then  be  sought  in  the 
western  hemisphere.  This  substantially  leaves  Europe  as  the 
one  continent  in  which  excavations  have  been  carried  on  with 
prospects  of  success;  and  it  is  in  the  more  thoroughly  explored 
western  half  of  Europe  that  all  but  two  of  the  unquestioned 
discoveries  of  ancient  man  have  been  made.  One  of  these  excep¬ 
tional  finds  is  from  Africa.  The  other  happens  to  be  the  one 
that  dates  earliest  of  all — the  same  Pithecanthropus  already 
mentioned  as  being  the  closest  known  approach  to  the  “missing 
link.”  Pithecanthropus  was  found  in  Java. 

Now  it  might  conceivably  prove  true  that  man  originated  in 
Europe  and  that  this  is  the  reason  that  the  discoveries  of  his 
most  ancient  remains  have  to  date  been  so  largely  confined  to 
that  continent.  On  the  other  hand,  it  does  seem  much  more 
reasonable  to  believe  that  this  smallest  of  the  continents,  with 
its  temperate  or  cold  climate,  and  its  poverty  of  ancient  and 
modern  species  of  monkeys,  is  likely  not  to  have  been  the  true 
home,  or  at  any  rate  not  the  only  home,  of  the  human  family. 
The  safest  statement  of  the  case  would  be  that  it  is  not  known 
in  what  part  of  the  earth  man  originated;  that  next  to  nothing 
is  known  of  the  history  of  his  development  on  most  of  the  con- 


ANT/QU/TY  Or  MAH 


GEOLOGY 


MAR 


CUL  TORE 


YEARS 


!  Rsc^rrr 


1 

§ 

I 


I 

!  Q~ 
■  kl 

•si 


ig 

5j 

a 

5! 


|g 

I 

*t! 


WURM 


RI55 


J1H1DEL 


Gunz 


t-ns/ma  ^c£s> 


CRO-MAGnOn 

tlEAHDERTAL 


LOWER  PALAEOLITHIC 


P/LTDOWn? 


HEIDELBERG 


PJTHECA/iTHPOPUS 


nEOL  (TfifC,  H/S  TQR/C 


UPPER  PALAEOL  /  TH/C 


EOLITH !C? 


. /OtOOO 

- 25,000 

50,000 


100,000 


500,000 


1000,000 


Fig.  5.  Antiquity  of  man.  This  diagram  is  drawn  to  scale,  propor¬ 
tionate  to  the  number  of  years  estimated  to  have  elapsed,  as  far  down 
as  100,000.  Beyond,  the  scale  is  one-half,  to  bring  the  diagram  within 
the  limits  of  the  page. 


FOSSIL  MAN 


21 


tinents;  and  that  that  portion  of  his  history  which  chiefly  is 
known  is  the  fragment  which  happened  to  take  place  in  Europe. 

11.  Pithecanthropus 

Pithecanthropus  erectus,  the  “ erect  ape-man,”  was  determined 
from  the  top  part  of  a  skull,  a  thigh  bone,  and  two  molar  teeth 
found  in  1891  under  fifty  feet  of  strata  by  Dubois,  a  Dutch 
surgeon,  near  Trinil,  in  the  East  Indian  island  of  Java.  The 
skull  and  the  thigh  lay  some  distance  apart  but  at  the  same 
level  and  probably  are  from  the  same  individual.  The  period 
of  the  stratum  is  generally  considered  early  Pleistocene,  pos¬ 
sibly  approximately  contemporary  with  the  first  or  Giinz  glacia¬ 
tion  of  Europe — nearly  a  million  years  ago,  by  the  time  scale 
here  followed.  Java  was  then  a  part  of  the  mainland  of  Asia. 

The  skull  is  low,  with  narrow  receding  forehead  and  heavy 
ridges  of  bone  above  the  eye  sockets — “supraorbital  ridges.” 
The  capacity  is  estimated  at  850  or  900  cubic  centimeters — half 
as  much  again  as  that  of  a  large  gorilla,  but  nearly  one-lialf  less 
than  the  average  for  modern  man.  The  skull  is  dolichocephalic 
— long  for  its  breadth — like  the  skulls  of  all  early  fossil  men; 
whereas  the  anthropoid  apes  are  more  broad-headed.  The  jaws 
are  believed  to  have  projected  almost  like  a  snout;  but  as  they 
remain  undiscovered,  this  part  of  the  reconstruction  is  con¬ 
jectural.  The  thigh  bone  is  remarkably  straight,  indicating 
habitual  upright  posture ;  its  length  suggests  that  the  total  body 
stature  was  about  5  feet  7  inches,  or  as  much  as  the  height  of 
most  Europeans. 

Pithecanthropus  was  a  terrestrial  and  not  an  arboreal  form. 
He  seems  to  have  been  slightly  more  similar  to  modern  man  than 
to  any  ape,  and  is  the  most  primitive  manlike  type  yet  discov¬ 
ered.  But  he  is  very  different  from  both  man  and  the  apes,  as 
his  name  indicates:  Pithecanthropus  is  a  distinct  genus,  not 
included  in  Homo ,  or  man. 

12.  Heidelberg  Man 

Knowledge  of  Heidelberg  man  rests  on  a  single  piece  of  bone 
— a  lower  jaw  found  in  1907  by  Schoetensack  at  a  depth  of 


22 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


nearly  eighty  feet  in  the  Mauer  sands  not  far  from  Heidelberg, 
Germany.  Like  the  Pithecanthropus  remains,  the  Heidelberg 
specimen  lay  in  association  with  fossils  of  extinct  mammals,  a 
fact  which  makes  possible  its  dating.  It  probably  belongs  to 
the  second  interglacial  period,  so  that  its  antiquity  is  only  about 
half  as  great  as  that  of  Pithecanthropus  (Fig.  5). 

The  jaw  is  larger  and  heavier  than  any  modern  human  jaw. 
The  ramus,  or  upright  part  toward  the  socket,  is  enormously 
broad,  as  in  the  anthropoid  apes.  The  chin  is  completely  lack¬ 
ing  ;  but  this  area  does  not  recede  so  much  as  in  the  apes. 
Heidelberg  man’s  mouth  region  must  have  projected  consider¬ 
ably  more  than  that  of  modern  man,  but  much  less  than  that 
of  a  gorilla  or  a  chimpanzee.  The  contour  of  the  jaw  as  seen 
from  above  is  human  (oval),  not  simian  (narrow  and  oblong). 

The  teeth,  although  large,  are  essentially  human.  They  are 
set  close  together,  with  their  tops  flush,  as  in  man ;  the  canines 
lack  the  tusk-like  character  which  they  retain  in  the  apes. 

Since  the  skull  and  the  limb  bones  of  this  form  are  wholly 
unknown,  it  is  somewhat  difficult  to  picture  the  type  as  it  ap¬ 
peared  in  life.  But  the  jaw  being  as  manlike  as  it  is  apelike, 
and  the  teeth  distinctly  human,  the  Heidelberg  type  is  to  be 
regarded  as  very  much  nearer  to  modern  man  than  to  the  ape, 
or  as  farther  along  the  line  of  evolutionary  development  than 
Pithecanthropus ;  as  might  be  expected  from  its  greater  recency. 
This  relationship  is  expressed  by  the  name,  Homo  Heidelberg- 
ensis,  which  recognizes  the  type  as  belonging  to  the  genus  man. 

13.  The  Piltdown  Form 

This  form  is  reconstructed  from  several  fragments  of  a  female 
brain  case,  some  small  portions  of  the  face,  nearly  half  the 
lower  jaw,  and  a  number  of  teeth,  found  in  1911-13  by  Dawson 
and  Woodward  in  a  gravel  layer  at  Piltdown  in  Sussex,  Eng¬ 
land.  Great  importance  has  been  ascribed  to  this  skull,  but  too 
many  of  its  features  remain  uncertain  to  render  it  safe  to  build 
large  conclusions  upon  the  discovery.  The  age  cannot  be  fixed 
with  positiveness ;  the  deposit  is  only  a  few  feet  below  the  sur¬ 
face,  and  in  the  open ;  the  associated  fossils  have  been  washed 
$r  rolled  into  the  layer ;  some  of  them  are  certainly  much  older 


FOSSIL  MAN 


23 


than  the  skull,  belonging  to  animals  characteristic  of  the  Plio¬ 
cene,  that  is,  the  Tertiary.  If  the  age  of  the  skull  was  the 
third  interglacial  period,  as  on  the  whole  seems  most  likely, 
its  antiquity  might  be  less  than  a  fourth  that  of  Pithecan¬ 
thropus  and  half  that  of  Heidelberg  man. 

The  skull  capacity  has  been  variously  estimated  at  1,170, 
nearly  1,300,  and  nearly  1,500  c.c. ;  the  pieces  do  not  join,  so 
that  no  certain  proof  can  be  given  for  any  figure.  Except  for 
unusual  thickness  of  the  bone,  the  skull  is  not  particularly 
primitive.  The  jaw  and  the  teeth,  on  the  other  hand,  are 
scarcely  distinguishable  from  those  of  a  chimpanzee.  They  are 
certainly  far  less  human  than  the  Heidelberg  jaw  and  teeth, 
which  are  presumably  earlier.  This  human  skull  and  simian 
jaw  are  an  almost  incompatible  combination.  More  than  one 
expert  has  got  over  the  difficulty  by  assuming  that  the  skull  of 
a  contemporary  human  being  and  the  jaw  of  a  chimpanzee  hap¬ 
pened  to  be  deposited  in  the  same  gravel. 

In  view  of  these  doubts  and  discrepancies,  the  claim  that  the 
Piltdown  form  belongs  to  a  genus  Eoanthropus  distinct  from 
that  of  man  is  to  be  viewed  with  reserve.  This  interpretation 
would  make  the  Piltdown  type  more  primitive  than  the  probably 
antecedent  Heidelberg  man.  Some  authorities  do  regard  it  as 
both  more  primitive  and  earlier. 

14.  Neandertal  Man 

The  preceding  forms  are  each  known  only  from  partial  frag¬ 
ments  of  the  bones  of  a  single  individual.  The  Neandertal  race 
is  substantiated  by  some  dozens  of  different  finds,  including  half 
a  dozen  nearly  complete  skulls,  and  several  skeletons  of  which 
the  greater  portions  have  been  preserved.  These  fossils  come 
from  Spain,  France,  Belgium,  Germany,  and  what  was  Austro- 
Hungary,  or,  roughly,  from  the  whole  western  half  of  Europe. 
They  are  all  of  similar  type  and  from  the  Mousterian  period 
of  the  Palaeolithic  or  Old  Stone  Age  (§  70-72,  Fig.  17)  ;  whereas 
Pithecanthropus,  Heidelberg,  and  perhaps  Piltdown  are  earlier 
than  the  Stone  Age.  The  Mousterian  period  may  be  dated  as 
coincident  with  the  peak  of  the  last  or  Wiirm  glaciation,  that  is, 
about  50,000  to  25,000  years  ago.  Its  race — the  Neandertal  type 


24 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


— was  clearly  though  primitively  human ;  which  fact  is  reflected 
in  the  various  systematic  names  that  have  been  given  it :  Homo 
N eandertalensis,  Homo  Mousteriensis,  or  Homo  primigenius. 

The  Most  Important  Neandertal  Discoveries 


1856 

Neandertal 

Near  Diisseldorf,  Germany 

Skull  cap  and  parts  of  skel¬ 
eton 

1848 

Gibraltar 

Spain 

Greater  part  of  skull 

1887 

Spy  I 

Belgium 

Skull  and  parts  of  skeleton 

1887 

Spy  II 

Belgium 

Skull  and  parts  of  skeleton 

1889-1905 

Krapina 

Moravia 

Parts  of  ten  or  more  skulls 
and  skeletons 

1908 

La-Chapelle- 

aux-Saints 

Correze,  France 

Skeleton  including  skull 

1908 

Le  Moustier 

Dordogne,  France 

Skeleton,  including  skull,  of 
youth 

1909 

La  Ferrassie  I 

Dordogne,  France 

Partial  skeleton 

1910 

La  Ferrassie  II  Dordogne,  France 

Skeleton 

1911 

La  Quina 

Charente,  France 

Skull  and  parts  of  skeleton 

1911 

Jersey 

Island  in  English  Channel 

Teeth 

Neandertal  man  was  short:  around  5  feet  3  inches  for  men, 
4  feet  10  inches  for  women,  or  about  the  same  as  the  modern 
Japanese.  A  definite  curvature  of  his  thigh  bone  indicates  a 
knee  habitually  somewhat  bent,  and  probably  a  slightly  stoop¬ 
ing  or  slouching  attitude.  All  his  bones  are  thickset:  his  mus¬ 
culature  must  have  been  powerful.  The  chest  was  large,  the 
neck  bull-like,  the  head  hung  forward  upon  it.  This  head  was 
massive:  its  capacity  averaged  around  1,550  c.c.,  or  equal  to 
that  of  European  whites  and  greater  than  the  mean  of  all  living 
races  of  mankind  (Fig.  6).  The  head  was  rather  low  and  the 
forehead  sloped  back.  The  supraorbital  ridges  were  heavy:  the 
eyes  peered  out  from  under  beetling  brows.  The  jaws  were 
prognathous,  though  not  more  than  in  many  Australians  and 
Negroes;  the  chin  receded  but  existed. 

Some  Neandertal  Measurements 


Fossil  Skull  Capacity 

Neandertal  . 1400  c.c. 

Spy  I  .  1550  c.c. 

Spy  II .  1700  c.c. 

La  Chapelle-aux-Saints  .  1600  c.c. 

La  Ferrassie  I . 

Average  of  male  Neandertals .  1550  c.c. 

Average  of  modern  European  males .  1550  c.c. 

Average — modern  mankind .  1450  c.c. 

Gibraltar  .  1300  c.c. 

La  Quina .  1350  c.c. 

La  Ferrassie  II  . 


Average  of  modern  European  females ....  1400  c.c. 


Stature 

5  ft.  4  (or  1)  in. 

5  ft.  4  in. 

5  ft.  3  (or  2)  in. 

5  ft.  5  in. 

5  ft.  4  (or  3)  in. 

5  ft.  5  to  8  in. 

5  ft.  5  in. 


4  ft.  10  in. 

5  ft.  1  to  3  in. 


FOSSIL  MAN 


25 


The  artifacts  found  in  Mousterian  deposits  show  that  Nean- 
dertal  man  chipped  flint  tools  in  several  ways,  knew  fire,  and 
buried  his  dead.  It  may  be  assumed  as  almost  certain  that  he 
spoke  some  sort  of  language. 


4 


Fig.  6.  Skulls  of  1,  Pithecanthropus;  2,  Neandertal  man  (Chapelle- 
aux-Saints) ;  3,  Sixth  Dynasty  Egyptian;  4,  Old  Man  of  Cro-Magnon. 
Combined  from  Keith.  The  relatively  close  approximation  of  Nean¬ 
dertal  man  to  recent  man,  and  the  full  frontal  development  of  the  Cro- 
Magnon  race,  are  evident. 

15.  Rhodesian  Man 

Quite  recent  is  the  discovery  of  an  African  fossil  man.  This 
occurred  in  1921  at  Broken  Hill  Bone  Cave  in  northern  Rho¬ 
desia.  A  nearly  complete  skull  was  found,  though  without 


26 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


lower  jaw;  a  small  piece  of  the  upper  jaw  of  a  second  indi¬ 
vidual  ;  and  several  other  bones,  including  a  tibia.  The  remains 
were  ninety  feet  deep  in  a  cave,  associated  with  vast  quantities 
of  mineralized  animal  bones.  Their  age  however  is  unknown. 
The  associated  fauna  is  one  of  living  species  only ;  but  this  does 
not  imply  the  same  recency  as  in  Europe,  since  the  animal  life 
of  Africa  has  altered  relatively  little  since  well  back  in  the 
Pleistocene. 

Measurements  of  Rhodesian  man  have  not  yet  been  published. 
The  available  descriptions  point  to  a  small  brain  case  with  low 
vault  in  the  frontal  region ;  more  extremely  developed  eyebrow 
ridges  than  in  any  living  or  fossil  race  of  man,  including 
Pithecanthropus;  a  large  gorilla-like  face,  with  marked  prog¬ 
nathism  and  a  long  stretch  between  nose  and  teeth — the  area 
covered  by  the  upper  lip ;  a  flaring  but  probably  fairly  promi¬ 
nent  nose;  an  enormous  palate  and  dental  arch — too  large  to 
accommodate  even  the  massive  Heidelberg  jaw;  large  teeth,  but 
without  the  projecting  canines  of  the  apes  and  of  the  lower 
jaw  attributed  to  Piltdown  man ;  and  a  forward  position  of  the 
foramen  magnum — the  aperture  by  which  the  spinal  cord  enters 
the  brain — which  suggests  a  fully  upright  position.  The  same 
inference  is  derivable  from  the  long,  straight  shin-bone. 

On  the  whole,  this  seems  to  be  a  form  most  closely  allied  to 
Neandertal  man,  though  differing  from  him  in  numerous  re¬ 
spects,  and  especially  in  the  more  primitive  type  of  face.  It  is 
well  to  remember,  however,  that  of  none  of  the  forms  anterior 
to  Neandertal  man — Pithecanthropus,  Heidelberg,  Piltdown — 
has  the  face  been  recovered.  If  these  were  known,  the  Rhodesian 
face  might  seem  less  impressively  ape-like.  It  is  also  important 
to  observe  that  relatively  primitive  and  advanced  features  exist 
side  by  side  in  Rhodesian  man;  the  face  and  eyebrow  ridges 
are  somewhat  off-set  by  the  prominent  nose,  erect  posture,  and 
long  clean  limb  bones.  It  is  therefore  likely  that  this  form  was 
a  collateral  relative  of  Neandertal  man  rather  than  his  ancestor 
or  descendant.  Its  place  in  the  history  of  the  human  species 
can  probably  be  fixed  only  after  the  age  of  the  bones  is  deter¬ 
mined.  Yet  it  is  already  clear  that  the  discovery  is  important 
in  at  least  three  respects.  It  reveals  the  most  ape-like  face  yet 
found  in  a  human  variety;  it  extends  the  record  of  fossil  man 


FOSSIL  MAN 


27 


to  a  new  continent;  and  that  continent  is  the  home  of  the  two 
living  apes — the  gorilla  and  chimpanzee — recognized  as  most 
similar  to  man. 


16.  The  Cro-Magnon  Race 

The  Cro-Magnon  race  is  not  only  within  the  human  species, 
but  possibly  among  the  ancestors  of  modern  Europeans.  While 
Neandertal  man  is  still  Homo  N eandertalensis — the  genus  of 
living  man,  but  a  different  species — the  Cro-Magnon  type  is 
Homo  sapiens — that  is,  a  variety  of  ourselves.  The  age  is  that 
of  the  gradual,  fluctuating  retreat  of  the  glaciers — the  later 
Cave  period  of  the  Old  Stone  Age :  the  Upper  Palaeolithic,  in 
technical  language,  comprising  the  Aurignacian,  the  Solutrean, 
and  the  Magdalenian  (§  70).  In  years,  this  was  the  time  from 
25,000  to  10,000  B.C. 


Some  Important  Kemains  of  Cro-Magnon  Type 


1868  Cro-Magnon 
1872-74  Grimaldi 
1909  Laugerie  Haute 
1909  Combe-Capelle 


1872  Laugerie  Basse 
1888  Chancelade 
1914  Obercassel 


Aurignacian 

Dordogne,  France 
Mentone,  N.W.  Italy 
Dordogne,  France 
Perigord,  France 

Magdalenian 

Dordogne,  France 
Dordogne,  France 
Near  Bonn,  Germany 


5  incomplete  skeletons 
12  skeletons 
Skeleton 
Skeleton 


Skeleton 

Skeleton,  nearly  complete 
2  skeletons 


The  Cro-Magnon  race  of  Aurignacian  times,  as  represented 
by  the  finds  at  Cro-Magnon  and  Grimaldi,1  was  excessively  tall 
and  large-brained,  surpassing  any  living  race  of  man  in  both 
respects. 

The  adult  male  buried  at  Cro-Magnon  measured  5  feet  11 
inches  in  life ;  five  men  at  Grimaldi  measured  from  5  feet  IOV2 
inches  to  6  feet  4%  inches,  averaging  6  feet  l1/^  inches.  The 

1  The  place  or  “station”  Grimaldi  must  not  be  confused  with  the  Grimaldi 
race  mentioned  below.  The  grottos  at  Grimaldi  contained  two  skeletons 
of  Grimaldi  racial  type  and  a  larger  number  of  Cro-Magnon  type.  The 
Grimaldi  race  is  therefore  really  not  the  most  representative  one  of  the 
locality  Grimaldi;  but  as  it  has  not  yet  been  discovered  elsewhere,  there 
seems  no  choice  but  to  call  it  by  that  name. 


28 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


tallest  men  now  on  earth,  certain  Scots  and  Negroes,  average  less 
than  5  feet  11  inches.  A  girl  at  Grimaldi  measured  5  feet 
5  inches.  This  race  was  not  only  tall,  but  clean-limbed,  lithe, 
and  swift. 

Their  brains  were  equally  large.  Those  of  the  five  male  skulls 
from  Grimaldi  contain  from  over  1,700  to  nearly  1,900  c.c. — 
an  average  of  1,800  c.c. ;  that  of  the  old  man  of  Cro-Magnon, 
nearly  1,600  c.c. ;  of  a  woman  there,  1,550  c.c.  If  these  indi¬ 
viduals  were  not  exceptional,  the  figures  mean  that  the  size  and 
weight  of  the  brain  of  the  early  Cro-Magnon  people  was  some 
fifteen  or  twenty  per  cent  greater  than  that  of  modern  Eu¬ 
ropeans. 

The  cephalic  index  is  low — that  is,  the  skull  was  long  and 
narrow,  as  in  all  the  types  here  considered;  but  the  face  was 
particularly  broad.  The  forehead  rose  well  domed;  the  supra¬ 
orbital  development  was  moderate,  as  in  recent  men;  the  fea¬ 
tures  must  have  been  attractive  even  by  our  standards. 

Three  of  the  best  preserved  skeletons  of  the  Magdalenian 
period  are  those  of  women.  Their  statures  run  4  feet  7  inches, 
5  feet  1  inch,  5  feet  1  inch,  which  would  indicate  a  correspond¬ 
ing  normal  height  for  men  not  far  from  that  of  the  average 
European  of  to-day.  The  male  from  Obercassel  attained  a  sta¬ 
ture  of  about  5  feet  3  inches,  a  cranial  capacity  of  1,500  c.c.,  and 
combined  a  long  skull  with  a  wide  face.  The  general  type  of 
the  Magdalenian  period  might  be  described  as  a  reduced  Cro- 
Magnon  one. 

The  Cro-Magnon  peoples  used  skilfully  made  harpoons,  origi¬ 
nated  a  remarkable  art,  and  in  general  attained  a  development 
of  industries  parallel  to  their  high  degree  of  bodily  progress. 

17.  The  Brunn  Race 

Several  remains  have  been  found  in  central  Europe  which  have 
sometimes  been  considered  as  belonging  to  the  Neandertal  race 
and  sometimes  to  the  subsequent  Cro-Magnon  race,  but  do  not 
belong  clearly  with  either,  and  may  perhaps  be  regarded  as  dis¬ 
tinct  from  both  and  possibly  bridging  them.  The  type  is  gen¬ 
erally  known  as  the  Brunn  race.  Its  habitat  was  Czecho¬ 
slovakia  and  perhaps  adjacent  districts;  its  epoch,  postglacial, 


FOSSIL  MAN 


29 


in  the  Solntrean  period  of  the  Upper  Palaeolithic  (§70).  The 
Briinn  race,  so  far  as  present  knowledge  of  it  goes,  was  there¬ 
fore  both  preceded  and  succeeded  by  Cro-Magnon  man. 


Bohemia 

Moravia 

Moravia 


Skull  cap 

Parts  of  20  skeletons 
Skeleton,  2  skulls 


1871  Briix 
1880  Predmost 
1891  Briinn 


The  Briinn  race  belongs  with  modern  man:  its  species  is  no 
longer  Homo  Neandertalensis,  but  Homo  sapiens ,  to  which  we 
also  belong.  The  heavy  supraorbital  ridges  of  the  earlier  type 
are  now  divided  by  a  depression  over  the  nose  instead  of  stretch¬ 
ing  continuously  across  the  forehead;  the  chin  is  becoming  pro¬ 
nounced,  the  jaws  protrude  less  than  in  Neandertal  man.  The 
skull  is  somewhat  higher  and  better  vaulted.  In  all  these  re¬ 
spects  there  is  an  approach  to  the  Cro-Magnon  race.  But  the 
distinctively  broad  face  of  the  Cro-Magnon  people  is  not  in 
evidence. 

A  skull  of  uncertain  geologic  age,  found  in  1888  at  Galley 
Hill,  near  London,  is  by  some  linked  with  the  Briinn  race.  The 
same  is  true  of  an  unusually  well  preserved  skeleton  found  in 
1909  at  Combe-Capelle,  in  Perigord,  southern  France.  The 
period  of  the  Combe-Capelle  skeleton  is  Upper  Palaeolithic 
Aurignacian.  This  was  part  of  the  era  of  the  Cro-Magnon  race 
in  western  Europe;  and  as  the  Combe-Capelle  remains  do  not 
differ  much  from  the  Cro-Magnon  type,  they  are  best  considered 
as  belonging  to  it. 


18.  The  Grimaldi  Race:  Neolithic  Races 


The  Grimaldi  race  is  to  date  represented  by  only  two  skele¬ 
tons,  those  of  a  woman  and  a  youth — possibly  mother  and  son 
— found  in  1906  in  a  grotto  at  Grimaldi  near  Mentone,  in  Italy, 
close  to  the  French  border.  They  reposed  in  lower  layers,  above 
which  subsequent  Cro-Magnon  burials  of  Aurignacian  date  had 
been  made.  Their  age  is  therefore  early  Aurignacian :  the  be¬ 
ginning  of  the  Upper  Palaeolithic  or  later  Cave  period  of  the 
Old  Stone  Age.  The  statures  are  5  feet  2  inches  and  5  feet 
1  inch — the  youth  was  not  fully  grown;  the  skull  capacities 
1,375  and  nearly  1,600  c.c. 


30 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


The  outstanding  feature  of  both  skeletons  is  that  they  bear 
a  number  of  Negroid  characteristics.  The  forearm  and  lower 
leg  are  long  as  compared  with  the  upper  arm  and  thigh;  the 
pelvis  high  and  small ;  the  jaws  prognathous,  the  nose  flat,  the 
eye  orbits  narrow.  All  these  are  Negro  traits.  This  is  impor¬ 
tant,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  all  the  other  ancient  fossils  of  men 
are  either  more  primitive  than  the  living  races  or,  like  Cro- 
Magnon,  perhaps  ancestral  to  the  Caucasian  race. 

No  fossil  remains  of  any  ancestral  Mongolian  type  have  yet 
been  discovered. 

The  New  Stone  Age,  beginning  about  10,000  or  8,000  B.C., 
brings  the  Grenelle  and  other  types  of  man;  but  these  are  so 
essentially  modern  that  they  need  not  be  considered  here.  .In 
the  Neolithic  period,  broad  heads  are  for  the  first  time  encoun¬ 
tered,  as  they  occur  at  present  in  Europe  and  other  continents, 
alongside  of  narrow  ones.  The  virtual  fixity  of  the  human  type 
for  these  last  ten  thousand  years  is  by  no  means  incredible. 
Egyptian  mummies  and  skeletons  prove  that  the  type  of  that 
country  has  changed  little  in  five  thousand  years  except  as  the 
result  of  invasions  and  admixture. 

19.  The  Metric  Expression  of  Human  Evolution 

The  relations  of  the  several  fossil  types  of  man  and  their 
gradual  progression  are  most  accurately  expressed  by  certain 
skull  angles  and  proportions,  or  indexes,  which  have  been  spe¬ 
cially  devised  for  the  purpose..  The  anthropometric  criteria  that 
are  of  most  importance  in  the  study  of  living  races,  more  or 
less  fail  in  regard  to  prehistoric  man.  The  hair,  complexion, 
and  eye-color  are  not  preserved.  The  head  breadth,  as  indi¬ 
cated  by  the  cephalic  index,  is  substantially  the  same  from 
Pithecanthropus  to  the  last  Cro-Magnons.  Stature  on  the  other 
hand  varies  from  one  to  another  ancient  race  without  evincing 
much  tendency,  to  grow  or  to  diminish  consistently.  Often,  too, 
there  is  only  part  of  a  skull  preserved.  The  following  propor¬ 
tions  of  the  top  or  vault  of  the  skull — the  calvarium — are  there¬ 
fore  useful  for  expressing  quantitatively  the  gradual  phj7sical 
progress  of  humanity  from  its  beginning. 

Three  anatomical  points  on  the  surface  of  the  skull  are  the 


FOSSIL  MAN 


31 


pivots  on  which  these  special  indexes  and  angles  rest.  One  is 
the  Glabella  (G  in  figure  7),  the  slight  swelling  situated  be¬ 
tween  the  eyebrows  and  above  the  root  of  the  nose.  The  second 
is  the  Inion  (I),  the  most  rearward  point  on  the  skull.  The 
third  is  the  Bregma  (B)  or  point  of  intersection  of  the  sutures 
which  divide  the  frontal  from  the  parietal  bones.  The  bregma 
falls  at  or  very  near  the  highest  point  of  the  skull. 

If  now  we  see  a  skull  lengthwise,  or  draw  a  projection  of  it, 
and  connect  the  glabella  and  the  inion  by  a  line  GI,  and  the 
glabella  and  the  bregma  by  a  line  GB,  an  acute  angle,  BGI,  is 


5 


Fig.  7.  Indices  and  angles  of  special  significance  in  the  change  from 
fossil  to  living  man.  Calvarial  height  index,  BX:  GI.  Bregma  posi¬ 
tion  index,  GX:  GI.  Bregma  angle,  BGI.  Frontal  angle,  FGI. 

formed.  This  is  the  “bregma  angle.”  Obviously  a  high  vaulted 
skull  or  one  that  has  the  superior  point  B  well  forward  will 
show  a  greater  angle  than  a  low  flat  skull  or  one  with  its  summit 
lying  far  back. 

Next,  let  us  drop  a  vertical  from  the  bregma  to  the  line  GI, 
cutting  it  at  X.  Obviously  the  proportion  which  the  vertical 
line  BX  bears  to  the  horizontal  line  GI  will  be  greater  or  less 
as  the  arch  or  vault  of  the  brain  case  is  higher  or  lower.  This 
proportion  BX:GI,  expressed  in  percentages,  is  the  “calvarial 
height  index.” 

If  now  we  compute  the  proportion  of  the  GX  part  of  the  line 
GI  to  the  whole  of  this  line,  we  have  the  “bregma  position 
index  ”j  that  is,  a  numerical  indication  of  how  far  forward  on 


32 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


The  Skull  of  Modern  and  Fossil  Man 


Calvarial 

Bregma 

Bregma 

Frontal 

Height 

Angle 

Position 

Angle 

Index 

Index 

Maximum  for  modern  man . 

....  68 

66 

Average  for  modern  man  . 

....  59 

58 

30.5 

90 

90  Central  Europeans  . 

. . . .  60 

61 

31 

28  Bantu  Negroes  . 

.  . . .  59 

59 

31 

7  Greenland  EsEimos . 

.  .  . .  56 

58 

30 

43  Australian  natives  . 

.  .  .  .  56 

57.5 

(33) 

8  Tasmanian  natives . 

....  56 

57 

#  # 

Minimum  for  modern  man . 

_  47.5 

46 

37 

72 

Chancel  ade . 

....  57 

60 

•  • 

•  • 

Combe-Capelle  . 

_ 54.5 

58 

•  • 

•  • 

Aurignac  . 

_  54.5 

#  # 

.  # 

•  • 

Cro-Magnon  I  . 

. ...  50 

54 

33 

•  • 

Briinn  I  . 

....  51 

52 

•  • 

75 

Galley  Hill  . 

. .  .  .  48 

52 

•  • 

82 

Briix  . 

....  48 

51  ? 

•  • 

75  ? 

Le  Moustier . 

....  47 

•  • 

•  • 

Krapina  C  . 

.  .  . .  46 

52 

•  • 

70 

Spy  II . 

.  . .  .  44 

50 

35 

67 

Krapina  D . 

.  .  .  .  42 

50 

32 

66 

Chapelle-aux-Saints  . 

....  40.5 

45.5 

36.5 

65 

Spy  I . 

.  .  . .  41 

45 

35 

57.5 

Gibraltar  . 

.  .  . .  40 

50 

#  . 

73  ? 

Neandertal . 

....  40 

44 

38 

62 

Pithecanthropus  . 

....  34 

38 

42 

52.5 

Maximum  for  any  Anthropoid  ape 

....  38 

39.5 

63 

.. 

Chimpanzee  . 

....  32 

34 

47 

56 

Gorilla  . 

....  20 

22 

42 

•  • 

Orang-utan . 

....  27 

32 

45 

•  • 

Summarized  Averages 

Modern  races  . 

....  59 

58 

31 

90 

Cro-Magnon  race  . 

.  .  . .  54 

57 

33 

#  # 

Briinn  race  . 

....  49 

52 

#  # 

77 

Neandertal  man  . 

.  .  .  .  42 

48 

35 

66 

Pithecanthropus  . 

....  34 

38 

42 

52 

Anthropoid  apes . 

30 

45 

•  • 

FOSSIL  MAN 


33 


the  skull  the  highest  point  B  lies.  A  sloping  or  retreating  fore¬ 
head  naturally  tends  to  have  the  bregma  rearward;  whereas  if 
the  frontal  bone  is  nearly  vertical,  resulting  in  a  high,  domed 
expanse  of  forehead,  the  bregma  tends  to  be  situated  farther 
forward,  the  point  X  shifts  in  the  same  direction,  the  distance 
GX  becomes  shorter  in  comparison  to  the  whole  line  GI,  and 
the  “bregma  position  index”  falls  numerically. 

The  “frontal  angle,”  finally,  is  determined  by  drawing  a  line 
GF  from  the  glabella  tangent  to  the  most  protruding  part  of 
the  frontal  bone  and  measuring  the  angle  between  this  and  the 
horizontal  GI.  A  small  frontal  angle  obviously  means  a  reced¬ 
ing  forehead. 

All  these  data  can  be  obtained  from  the  mere  upper  fragment 
of  a  skull ;  they  relate  to  that  feature  which  is  probably  of  the 
greatest  importance  in  the  evolution  of  man  from  the  lower 
animals — the  development  of  the  brain  case  and  therefore  of  the 
brain,  especially  of  the  cerebrum  or  fore-brain ;  and  they  define 
this  evolution  rather  convincingly.  The  table,  which  compiles 
some  of  the  most  important  findings,  shows  that  progress  has 
been  fairly  steadily  continuous  in  the  direction  of  greater 
cerebral  development. 


I 


\ 


CHAPTER  III 


LIVING  RACES 

20.  Race  origins. — 21.  Race  classification. — 22.  Traits  on  which  classi¬ 
fication  rests. — 23.  The  grand  divisions  or  primary  stocks. — 24.  Caucasian 
races. — 25.  Mongoloid  races. — 26.  Negroid  races. — 27.  Peoples  of  doubtful 
position. — 28.  Continents  and  oceans. — 29.  The  history  of  race  classifica¬ 
tions. — 30.  Emergence  of  the  threefold  classification. — 31.  Other  classi¬ 
fications. — 32.  Principles  and  conclusions  common  to  all  classifications.— 
33.  Race,  nationality,  and  language. 

20.  Race  Origins 

Almost  every  one  sooner  or  later  becomes  interested  in  the 
problem  of  the  origin  of  the  human  races  and  the  history  of 
their  development.  We  see  mankind  divided  into  a  number  of 
varieties  that  differ  strikingly  in  appearance.  If  these  varieties 
are  modifications  of  a  single  ancestral  form,  what  caused  them 
to  alter,  and  what  has  been  the  history  of  the  change? 

In  the  present  state  of  science,  we  cannot  wholly  answer  these 
important  questions.  We  know  very  little  about  the  causes  that 
change  human  types ;  and  we  possess  only  incomplete  informa¬ 
tion  as  to  the  history  of  races.  Stray  bits  of  evidence  here  and 
there  are  too  scattered  to  afford  many  helpful  clues.  The  very 
earliest  men,  as  we  know  them  from  fossils,  are  too  far  removed 
from  any  of  the  living  varieties,  are  too  primitive,  to  link  very 
definitely  with  the  existing  races,  which  can  all  be  regarded 
as  intergrading  varieties  of  a  single  species,  Homo  sapiens.  In 
the  latter  half  of  the  Old  Stone  Age,  in  the  Aurignacian  period, 
at  a  time  estimated  to  have  been  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  thou¬ 
sand  years  ago,  we  commence  to  encounter  fossils  which  seem 
to  foreshadow  the  modern  races.  The  so-called  Grimaldi  type 
of  man  from  this  period  possesses  Negroid  affinities,  the  con¬ 
temporary  Cro-Magnon  and  perhaps  Briinn  types  evince  Cau¬ 
casian  ones.  But  we  know  neither  the  origin  nor  the  precise 

34 


LIVING  RACES 


35 


descendants  of  these  fossil  races.1  They  appear  and  then  vanish 
from  the  scene.  About  all  that  we  can  conclude  from  this  frag¬ 
ment  of  evidence  is  that  the  races  of  man  as  they  are  spread 
over  the  earth  to-day  must  have  been  at  least  some  tens  of  thou¬ 
sands  of  years  in  forming.  What  caused  them  to  differentiate, 
on  which  part  of  the  earth’s  surface  each  took  on  its  peculiar¬ 
ities,  how  they  further  subdivided,  what  were  the  connecting 
links  between  them,  and  what  happened  to  these  lost  links — on 
all  these  points  the  answer  of  anthropology  is  as  yet  incomplete. 

It  is  no  different  in  other  fields  of  biology.  As  long  as  the 
zoologist  or  botanist  reviews  his  grand  classifications  or  the  wide 
sweep  of  organic  evolution  for  fifty  million  years  back,  he  seems 
to  obtain  striking  and  simple  results.  When  he  turns  his  atten¬ 
tion  to  a  small  group,  attempting  to  trace  in  detail  its  sub- 
varieties,  and  the  relations  and  history  of  these,  the  task  is  seen 
to  be  intricate  and  the  accumulated  knowledge  is  usually  in¬ 
sufficient  to  solve  more  than  a  fraction  of  the  problems  that 
arise. 

There  is,  then,  nothing  unusual  in  the  situation  of  partial 
bafflement  in  which  anthropology  still  finds  itself  as  regards 
the  human  races. 


21.  Race  Classification 

What  remains  is  the  possibility  of  making  an  accurate  survey 
of  the  living  races  in  the  hope  that  the  relationships  which  a 
classification  brings  out  may  indicate  something  as  to  the  former 
development  of  the  races.  If  for  instance  it  could  be  estab¬ 
lished  that  the  Ainu  or  aborigines  of  Japan  are  closely  similar 
in  their  bodies  to  the  peoples  of  Europe,  we  would  then  infer 
that  they  are  a  branch  of  the  Caucasian  stock,  that  their  origin 
took  place  far  to  the  west  of  their  present  habitat,  and  that  they 
have  no  connection  with  the  Mongolian  Japanese  among  whom 
they  now  live.  This  is  working  by  indirect  evidence,  it  is  true ; 
but  sooner  or  later  that  is  the  method  to  which  science  always 
finds  itself  reduced. 

The  desirability  of  a  trustworthy  classification  of  the  human 

i  It  has  been  maintained  that  individuals  of  Cro-Magnon  type  can  still 
be  found  in  southern  France  and  reckoned  as  a  distinct  element  in  the 
population  of  certain  districts;  but  the  Cro-Magnon  race  as  such  has  dis¬ 
appeared. 


36 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


races  will  therefore  be  generally  accepted  without  further  argu¬ 
ment.  But  the  making  of  such  a  classification  proves  to  be  more 
difficult  than  might  be  imagined.  To  begin  with,  a  race  is  only 
a  sort  of  average  of  a  large  number  of  individuals ;  and  averages 
differ  from  one  another  much  less  than  individuals.  Popular 
impression  exaggerates  the  differences,  accurate  measurements 
reduce  them.  It  is  true  that,  a  Negro  and  a  north  European 
cannot  possibly  be  confused:  they  happen  to  represent  extreme 
types.  Yet  as  soon  as  we  operate  with  less  divergent  races  we 
find  that  variations  between  individuals  of  the  same  race  are 
often  greater  than  differences  between  the  races.  The  tallest 
individuals  of  a  short  race  are  taller  than  the  shortest  indi¬ 
viduals  of  a  tall  race.  This  is  called  overlapping ;  and  it  occurs 
to  such  an  extent  as  to  make  it  frequently  difficult  for  the 
physical  anthropologist  to  establish  clear-cut  types. 

In  addition,  the  lines  of  demarcation  between  races  have  time 
and  again  been  obliterated  by  interbreeding.  Adjacent  peoples, 
even  hostile  ones,  intermarry.  The  number  of  marriages  in  one 
generation  may  be  small;  but  the  cumulative  effect  of  a  thou¬ 
sand  years  is  often  quite  disconcerting.  The  half-breeds  or 
hybrids  are  also  as  fertile  as  each  of  the  original  types.  There 
is  no  question  but  that  some  populations  are  nothing  but  the 
product  of  such  race  crossing.  Thus  there  is  a  belt  extending 
across  the  entire  breadth  of  Africa  of  which  it  is  difficult  to  say 
whether  the  inhabitants  belong  to  the  Negro  or  to  the  Caucasian 
type.  If  we  construct  a  racial  map  and  represent  the  demarca¬ 
tion  between  Negro  and  Caucasian  by  a  line,  we  are  really  mis¬ 
representing  the  situation.  The  truth  could  be  expressed  only 
by  inserting  a  transition  zone  of  mixed  color.  Yet  as  soon  as 
we  allow  such  transitions,  the  definiteness  of  our  classification 
begins  to  crumble. 

In  spite  of  these  difficulties,  some  general  truths  can  be  dis¬ 
covered  from  a  careful  race  classification,  and  certain  constant 
principles  of  importance  emerge  from  all  the  diversity. 

22.  Traits  on  Which  Classification  Rests 

Since  every  human  being  obviously  possesses  a  large  number 
of  physical  features  or  traits,  the  first  thing  that  the  prospective 


LIVING  RACES 


37 


classifier  of  race  must  do  is  to  determine  how  much  weight  he 
will  attach  to  each  of  these  features. 

The  most  striking  of  all  traits  probably  is  stature  or  bodily 
height.  Yet  this  is  a  trait  which  experience  has  shown  to  be 
of  relatively  limited  value  for  classifactory  purposes.  The 
imagination  is  easily  impressed  by  a  few  inches  when  they  show 
at  the  top  of  a  man  and  make  him  half  a  head  taller  or  shorter 
than  oneself.  Except  for  a  few  groups  which  numerically  are 
rather  insignificant,  there  is  no  human  race  that  averages  less 
than  5  feet  in  height.  There  is  none  at  all  that  averages  taller 
than  5  feet  10  inches.  This  means  that  practically  the  whole 
range  of  human  variability  in  height,  from  the  race  standpoint, 
falls  within  less  than  a  foot.  The  majority  of  averages  of 
populations  do  not  differ  more  than  2  inches  from  the  general 
human  average  of  5  feet  5  inches. 

Then,  too,  stature  lias  been  proved  to  be  rather  readily  influ¬ 
enced  by  environment.  Each  of  us  is  a  fraction  of  an  inch 
taller  when  he  gets  up  in  the  morning  than  when  he  goes  to 
bed  at  night.  Two  races  might  differ  by  as  much  as  a  couple 
of  inches  in  their  heredity,  and  yet  if  all  the  individuals  of 
the  shorter  race  were  well  nourished  in  a  favorable  environ¬ 
ment,  and  all  those  of  the  taller  group  were  underfed  and  over¬ 
worked,  the  naturally  shorter  race  might  well  be  actually  the 
taller  one. 

The  cephalic  index ,  which  expresses  in  percentage  form  the 
ratio  of  the  length  and  the  breadth  of  the  head,  is  perhaps  the 
most  commonly  used  anthropological  measurement.1  It  has  cer¬ 
tain  definite  advantages.  The  head  measurements  are  easily 
made  with  accuracy.  The  index  is  nearly  the  same  on  the  living 
head  and  on  the  dead  skull;  or  one  is  easily  converted  into  the 

1  The  usual  nomenclature  for  cephalic  index  is  on  the  basis  of  round 
numbers :  broad  or  round  headed  or  brachycephalic  above  SO ;  medium 
headed  or  mesocephalic  between  75  and  80;  narrow  or  long  headed  or 
dolichocephalic  below  75.  Yet,  as  the  average  for  mankind  is  in  the  neigh¬ 
borhood  of  79,  this  terminology  makes  far  more  brachycephalic  than 
dolichocephalic  peoples.  Groups  frequently  spoken  of  as  long  headed  are 
often  really  mesocephalic  by  the  accepted  definition:  a  large  proportion  of 
Europeans,  for  instance.  It  would  result  in  both  more  accuracy  and  a 
better  balancing  of  the  limits  if  the  three  types  of  head  form  were  set, 
as  has  been  suggested,  at  81  and  77  in  place  of  80  and  75. — The  index  of 
the  skull  (strictly,  the  cranial  index)  is  two  units  less  than  that  taken  on 
the  living  head. 


38 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


other.  This  enables  present  and  past  generations  to  be  compared. 
The  index  is  also  virtually  the  same  for  men  and  for  women, 
for  children  and  for  adults.  Finally,  it  seems  to  be  little 
affected  by  environment.  The  consequence  is  that  head  form 
has  been  widely  investigated.  There  are  few  groups  of  people 
of  consequence  whose  average  cephalic  index  we  do  not  know 
fairly  accurately.  The  difficulty  about  the  cephalic  index  from 
the  point  of  view  of  race  classification  is  that  it  does  not  yield 
broad  enough  results.  This  index  is  often  useful  in  distin¬ 
guishing  subtypes,  nation  from  nation,  or  tribe  from  tribe ;  but 
the  primary  races  are  not  uniform.  There  is,  for  instance,  no 
typical  head  form  for  the  Caucasian  race.  There  are  narrow 
headed,  medium  headed,  and  broad  headed  Caucasians.  The 
same  is  true  of  the  American  Indians,  who  are  on  the  whole 
rather  uniform,  yet  vary  much  in  head  form. 

The  nasal  index,  which  expresses  the  relation  of  length  and 
breadth  of  nose,  runs  much  more  constant  in  the  great  races. 
Practically  all  Negroids  are  broad-nosed,  practically  all  Cau¬ 
casians  narrow-nosed,  and  the  majority  of  peoples  of  Mongolian 
affinities  medium-nosed.  But  the  nasal  index  varies  according 
to  the  age  of  the  person ;  it  is  utterly  different  in  a  living  indi¬ 
vidual  and  a  skull ; 1  it  seems  to  reflect  heredity  less  directly 
than  the  cephalic  index ;  and  finally  it  tells  us  nothing  about  the 
elevation  or  profile  or  general  formation  of  the  nose. 

Prognathism,  or  the  degree  of  the  protrusion  of  the  jaws,  is 
a  conspicuous  feature  of  the  profile,  and  would  seem  to  be  of 
some  historic  importance  as  a  sign  of  primitiveness,  because  all 
other  mammals  are  more  prognathous  than  man.  The  trait  also 
has  a  general  correlation  with  the  fundamental  racial  types. 
Negroes  are  almost  all  prognathous,  people  of  Mongolian  type 
moderately  so,  Caucasians  very  slightly.  Prognathism  is  how¬ 
ever  difficult  to  measure  or  to  denote  in  figures.  Various  ap¬ 
paratuses  have  been  devised  without  wholly  satisfactory  results. 

The  capacity  of  the  skull  is  measured  by  filling  it  with  shot 
or  millet  seed.  The  latter  yields  figures  that  are  lower  by  50 
or  100  c.c.  The  average,  by  shot  measure,  for  males  the  world 

1  On  the  living,  platyrhine  noses  have  an  index  of  breadth  compared  with 
length  above  85,  mesorhine  between  70  and  85,  leptorhine  below  70; 
skeletally,  the  same  three  terms  denote  proportions  above  53,  between  48 
and  53,  and  below  48. 


LIVING  RACES 


39 


over  is  about  1,450  to  1,500  c.c.,  for  females  about  10  per  cent 
lower.  European  males  range  from  1,500  to  1,600,  Asiatic  Mon¬ 
goloids  but  little  less,  American  Indians  and  Polynesians  from 
1,400  to  1,500,  Bushmen,  Australians,  Tasmanians,  Negritos, 
Veddas  from  1,300  to  1,400.  These  last  groups  are  all  small 
bodied.  It  appears  that  cranial  capacity  is  considerably  de¬ 
pendent  on  bodily  size.  Slender  as  well  as  short  races  run  to 
small  capacities.  The  heavy  Bantu  surpass  the  slighter  framed 
Sudanese,  and  Hindus  stand  well  below  European  Caucasians; 
just  as  the  shorter  Japanese  average  less  than  the  Chinese. 
Broad  headed  populations  show  greater  cranial  capacity  than 
narrow  headed  ones:  Alpine  Europeans  (§24)  generally  sur¬ 
pass  Nordics  in  spite  of  their  shorter  stature.  Individual 
variability  is  also  unusually  great  in  this  measurement.  The 
largest  and  smallest  skulled  healthy  individuals  of  the  same  sex 
in  one  population  differ  sometimes  by  500,  600,  or  700  c.c.,  or 
more  than  one-third  of  the  racial  average.  Overlapping  between 
races  is  accordingly  particularly  marked  in  cranial  capacity. 
Furthermore,  the  measurement  obviously  cannot  be  taken  on  the 
living.  In  spite  of  its  interest  as  an  alleged  and  perhaps  par¬ 
tially  valid  index  of  mental  faculty,  cranial  capacity  is  thus  of 
restricted  value  in  distinguishing  races. 

The  texture  of  the  hair  is  now  universally  regarded  as  one 
of  the  most  valuable  criteria  for  classifying  races,  possibly  the 
most  significant  of  all.  Hair  is  distinguished  as  woolly  in  the 
Negro,  straight  in  the  Mongolian,  and  wavy  or  intermediate  in 
the  Caucasian.  This  texture  depends  principally  on  the  diam¬ 
eters  of  each  individual  hair,  as  they  are  revealed  in  cross- 
section  under  the  microscope ;  in  part  also  on  the  degree  of 
straightness  or  curvature  of  the  root  sacs  of  the  hair  in  the 
skin.  Hair  texture  seems  to  run  rather  rigidly  along  hereditary 
racial  lines,  and  to  be  uninfluenced  by  factors  of  age,  sex,  cli¬ 
mate,  or  nourishment. 

Hairiness  of  the  body  as  a  whole  is  another  trait  to  which 
more  and  more  attention  is  coming  to  be  paid.  The  fullness  or 
scantiness  of  the  beard,  and  the  degree  of  development  of  the 
down  which  covers  the  body,  are  its  most  conspicuous  manifes¬ 
tations.  Caucasians  are  definitely  a  hairy  race,  Mongoloids  and 
most  Negroids  glabrous  or  smooth-skinned.  It  is  largely  on  the 


40 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


basis  of  their  hairiness  that  races  like  the  Australians  have  been 
separated  from  the  Negroids,  and  the  Ainus  from  the  Japanese. 

Except  possibly  for  stature,  color  is  probably  the  most  con¬ 
spicuous  trait  of  any  race.  Under  color  must  be  included  the 
complexion  of  the  skin,  the  color  of  the  hair,  and  the  color  of 
the  eyes.  All  of  these  however  present  difficulties  to  the  anthro- 
pometrist.  The  pigment  in  every  human  skin  is  the  same:  it 
differs  only  in  amount.  We  have  therefore  a  complete  series 
of  transition  shades,  and  it  is  difficult  to  express  these  differ¬ 
ences  of  shade  quantitatively.  They  readily  impress  the  eye, 
but  it  is  far  from  easy  to  denote  them  accurately  in  numbers. 
Environment  also  affects  skin  color  markedly.  A  day’s  expo¬ 
sure  to  the  sun  will  darken  an  individual’s  complexion  by  sev¬ 
eral  shades.  In  spite  of  these  drawbacks,  however,  complexion 
remains  sufficiently  important  to  have  to  be  considered  in  every 
classification. 

Hair  color  and  eye  color  are  practically  immune  against  direct 
change  by  environment.  They  unquestionably  are  excellent 
hereditary  criteria,  although  they  offer  much  the  same  resistance 
to  measurement  as  does  complexion.  The  utility  of  these  two 
traits  is  however  limited  by  another  factor:  their  narrow  dis¬ 
tribution.  Blue  eyes  and  blond  hair  are  racially  characteristic 
of  only  a  single  subrace,  that  of  northern  Europe.  In  central 
Europe  they  are  already  much  toned  down :  the  prevailing  type 
here  is  brunet.  In  southern  Europe,  blue  eyes  and  blondness 
scarcely  occur  at  all  except  where  admixture  with  northern 
peoples  can  be  traced.  Outside  of  the  Caucasian  stock,  black 
hair  and  black  eyes  are  the  universal  rule  for  the  human  family. 

Obviously  it  would  be  easiest  to  arrive  at  a  clear-cut  classi¬ 
fication  by  grouping  all  the  peoples  of  the  earth  according  to  a 
single  trait,  such  as  the  shape  of  the  nose,  or  color.  But  any 
such  classification  must  be  artificial  and  largely  unsound,  just 
because  it  disregards  the  majority  of  traits.  The  only  classi¬ 
fication  that  can  claim  to  rest  upon  a  true  or  natural  basis  is 
one  which  takes  into  consideration  as  many  traits  as  possible, 
and  weights  the  important  more  heavily  than  the  unimportant 
features.  If  the  outcome  of  such  a  grouping  is  to  leave  some 
peoples  intermediate  or  of  doubtful  place  in  the  classification, 
this  result  is  unfortunate  but  must  be  accepted. 


Racial  Classification  of  Mankind 


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Hair  and  eyes  are  “black”  unless  otherwise  stated  in  Remarks. 


42 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


23.  The  Grand  Divisions  or  Primary  Stocks 

If  now  we  follow  this  plan  and  review  the  peoples  of  the 
earth,  each  with  reference  to  all  its  physical  traits,  we  obtain 
an  arrangement  something  like  that  which  is  given  in  the  table 
on  the  previous  page.  It  will  be  seen  that  there  are  three 
grand  divisions,  of  which  the  European,  the  Negro,  and  the 
Chinaman  may  be  taken  as  representative.  These  three  primary 
classes  are  generally  called  Caucasian,  Negroid,  and  Mongoloid. 
The  color  terms,  White,  Black,  and  Yellow,  are  also  often  used, 
but  it  is  necessary  to  remember  that  they  are  employed  merely 
as  brief  convenient  labels,  and  that  they  have  no  descriptive 
value.  There  are  millions  of  Caucasians  who  are  darker  in 
complexion  than  millions  of  Mongoloids. 

These  three  main  groups  account  for  more  than  nine-tenths 
of  all  the  nations  and  tribes  of  the  world.  As  to  the  number 
of  individuals,  they  comprise  probably  99  per  cent  of  all  human 
beings.  The  aberrant  forms  are  best  kept  separate.  Some  of 
them,  like  the  before-mentioned  Ainu  and  Australians,  appear 
to  affiliate  preponderantly  with  one  of  the  three  great  classes, 
but  still  differ  sufficiently  in  one  or  more  particulars  to  prevent 
their  being  included  with  them  outright.  Other  groups,  such 
as  the  Polynesians,  seem  to  be,  at  least  in  part,  the  result  of  a 
mixture  of  races.  Their  constituent  elements  are  so  blended, 
and  perhaps  so  far  modified  after  the  blending,  as  to  be  difficult 
to  disentangle. 

Each  of  the  three  great  primary  stocks  falls  into  several 
natural  subdivisions. 


24.  Caucasian  Races 

Three  of  the  four  Caucasian  races  live,  in  whole  or  part,  in 
Europe ;  the  fourth  consists  of  the  Hindus.1  The  three  Euro¬ 
pean  races  are  the  Nordic,  the  Alpine,  and  the  Mediterranean. 
Some  authorities  recognize  a  greater  number,  but  all  admit  at 

i  The  distribution  of  the  races  is  described  as  it  existed  before  the  era 
of  exploration  and  colonization  that  began  toward  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  Although  for  practical  purposes  they  have  been  submerged  by 
Caucasians  in  the  greater  part  of  the  Americas,  Australia,  and  South 
Africa,  it  is  the  native  races  whose  distribution  is  referred  to. 


LIVING  RACES 


43 


least  these  three.  They  occupy  horizontal  belts  on  the  map. 
Beginning  with  the  Nordic  and  ending  with  the  Mediterranean 
they  may  be  described  as  successively  darker  skinned,  darker 
eyed,  darker  haired,  and  shorter  in  stature.  The  Alpine  race, 
which  lies  between  the  two  others,  is  however  more  than  a  mere 
transition ;  for  it  is  broad  headed,  whereas  the  Nordic  and  Medi¬ 
terranean  are  both  narrow  or  long  headed.  The  Nordic  type  is 
essentially  distributed  around  the  Baltic  and  North  seas.  The 
Mediterranean  race  occupies  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean 
Sea,  in  Asia  and  Africa  as  well  as  in  Europe.  In  ancient  times 
it  seems  to  have  prevailed  everywhere  along  these  coasts.  At 
present  the  Balkan  peninsula  and  Asia  Minor  are  mostly  occu¬ 
pied  by  broad  headed  peoples  of  more  or  less  close  affinity  to 
the  Alpines.  This  Alpine  race  is  perhaps  less  homogeneous 
than  the  two  others.  A  central  Frenchman,  a  Serb,  a  Russian, 
and  an  Armenian  are  clearly  far  from  identical  (§30).  They 
have  enough  in  common,  however,  to  warrant  their  being  put  in 
the  one  larger  group. 

It  must  be  clearly  understood  that  these  races  have  nothing 
to  do  with  the  modern  political  nationalities  of  Europe.  North¬ 
ern  Germany  is  prevailingly  Nordic,  southern  Germany,  Alpine. 
Northern  Italy  is  Alpine,  the  rest  of  the  peninsula  Mediter¬ 
ranean.  All  three  races  are  definitely  represented  in  France. 
The  average  north  Frenchman  stands  racially  nearer  to  the 
north  German  than  to  his  countryman  from  central  France, 
whereas  the  latter  links  up  in  physical  type  with  the  south 
German.  Nationality  is  determined  by  speech,  customs,  religion, 
and  political  affiliations.  Its  boundary  lines  and  those  of  race 
cut  right  across  one  another. 

The  British  Isles  did  not  escape  the  process  of  race  blending 
that  has  gone  on  in  Europe  for  thousands  of  years.  The  bulk 
of  the  blood  of  their  inhabitants  during  the  past  thousand  years 
has  been  Nordic,  but  there  is  an  Alpine  strain,  and  most  au¬ 
thorities  recognize  a  definite  “Iberian/’  that  is,  Mediterranean 
element.  The  first  settlers  in  America  carried  this  mixture 
across  the  Atlantic,  and  through  the  years  immigration  has 
increased  its  compositeness.  Scandinavians  and  north  Germans 
have  added  to  the  Nordic  component  in  the  population  of  the 
United  States;  south  Germans,  Austro-Hungarians,  Russians, 


44 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


and  Jews  to  the  Alpine;  the  Italians  have  injected  a  definite 
Mediterranean  element.  The  Negro  alone  has  not  been  admitted 
into  the  make-up  of  our  white  society ;  but  the  reverse  holds : 
a  considerable  and  growing  percentage  of  the  “colored”  people 
in  the  United  States  are  from  one-sixteentli  to  fifteen-sixteenths 
Caucasian. 

The  Hindu  is  in  the  main  a  narrow  headed,  dark  skinned 
Caucasian,  not  very  different  from  the  Mediterranean.  When 
he  entered  India  he  probably  found  there  an  aboriginal  popu¬ 
lation  which  may  have  been  Negroid  but  more  likely  was  related 
to  the  Australians  or  perhaps  constituted  a  dark  proto-Caucasian 
or  Indo-Australian  race.  A  fairly  thorough  intermixture  has 
taken  place  in  India  during  the  last  three  thousand  years,  with 
the  result  that  the  originally  pure  Caucasian  type  of  the  Hindu 
has  been  somewhat  modified,  while  most  of  the  less  numerous  or 
less  vigorous  aboriginal  population  has  become  submerged.  The 
definite  Caucasian  type  is  best  preserved  in  the  north ;  the  traces 
of  the  dark  skinned  aboriginal  race  are  strongest  in  southern 
India. 

25.  Mongoloid  Races 

The  Mongoloid  stock  divides  into  the  Mongolian  proper  of 
eastern  Asia,  the  Malaysian  of  the  East  Indies,  and  the  American 
Indian.  The  differences  between  these  three  types  are  not  very 
great.  The  Mongolian  proper  is  the  most  extreme  or  pronounced 
form.  It  was  probably  the  latest  to  develop  its  present  char¬ 
acteristics.  For  instance,  the  oblique  or  “Mongolian”  eye  is  a 
peculiarity  restricted  to  the  jjeople  of  eastern  Asia.  The 
original  Mongoloid  stock  must  be  looked  upon  as  having  been 
more  like  present-day  Malaysians  or  American  Indians,  or 
intermediate  between  them.  From  this  generalized  type  peo¬ 
ples  like  the  Chinese  gradually  diverged,  adding  the  epicanthic 
fold  of  the  oblique  eye  and  other  peculiarities,  while  the  less 
civilized  peoples  of  America  and  Oceania  kept  more  nearly  to 
the  ancient  type. 

Within  the  East  Indies,  a  more  and  a  less  specifically  Mon¬ 
goloid  strain  can  at  times  be  distinguished.  The  latter  has  often 
been  called  Indonesian.  In  certain  respects,  such  as  relatively 


LIVING  RACES 


45 


short  stature  and  broad  nose,  it  approaches  the  Indo-Australian 
type  described  below.  Among  the  American  Mongoloids,  the 
Eskimo  appears  to  be  the  most  particularized  subvariety. 

26.  Negroid  Races 

The  Negroid  stock  falls  into  two  large  divisions,  the  African 
Negro  proper,  and  the  Oceanic  Melanesian ;  besides  a  third  divi¬ 
sion,  the  Dwarf  Blacks  or  Negritos,  who  are  very  few  in  num¬ 
bers  but  possess  a  wide  and  irregular  distribution.  The  Negroes 
and  the  Melanesians,  in  spite  of  their  being  separated  by  the 
breadth  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  are  clearly  close  relatives.  A 
trained  observer  can  distinguish  them  at  sight,  but  a  novice 
would  take  a  Papuan  from  New  Guinea  or  a  Melanesian  from 
the  Solomon  or  Fiji  Islands  to  be  an  African.  Perhaps  the 
most  conspicuous  difference  is  that  the  broad  nose  of  the  African 
Negro  is  flat,  the  broad  nose  of  the  Melanesian  often  aquiline. 
How  these  two  so  similar  Negroid  branches  came  to  be  located 
on  the  opposite  sides  of  a  great  ocean  is  a  fact  that  remains 
unexplained. 

The  Negrito  or  Dwarf  Negroid  race  has  representatives  in 
New  Guinea,  in  the  Philippines,  in  the  Malay  Peninsula,  in  the 
Andaman  Islands,  and  in  equatorial  Africa.  These  peoples  are 
the  true  pygmies  of  the  human  species.  Wherever  they  are 
racially  pure  the  adult  males  are  less  than  5  feet  in  stature. 
They  also  differ  from  other  Negroids  in  being  relatively  broad 
headed.  Their  skin  color,  hair  texture,  nose  form,  and  most 
other  traits  are,  however,  the  same  as  those  of  the  other  Ne¬ 
groids.  Their  scattered  distribution  is  difficult  to  account  for. 
It  is  possible  that  they  are  an  ancient  and  primitive  type  which 
once  inhabited  much  wider  stretches  of  territory  than  now  in 
Africa,  Asia,  and  Oceania.  On  account  of  their  inoffensiveness 
and  backwardness,  the  Negritos,  according  to  this  theory,  were 
gradually  crowded  to  the  wall  by  the  larger,  more  energetic 
populations  with  which  they  came  in  contact,  until  only  a  few 
scattered  fragments  of  them  now  remain. 

The  Bushmen  and  in  some  degree  the  Hottentots  of  South 
Africa  may  also  be  provisionally  included  with  the  Negritos, 
although  distinctive  in  a  number  of  respects.  They  are  yellowish- 


46 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


brown  in  complexion,  long  headed,  short  and  flat  eared,  short 
legged,  hollow  backed,  and  steatopygous.  On  the  whole  Negroid 
characteristics  prevail  among  them.  They  are,  for  instance, 
frizzy-haired.  Their  extremely  short  stature  may  justify  their 
tentative  inclusion  among  the  Negritos. 

27.  Peoples  of  Doubtful  Position 

One  thing  is  common  to  the  peoples  who  are  here  reckoned 
as  of  doubtful  position  in  the  classification:  they  all  present 
certain  Caucasian  affinities  without  being  similar  enough  to  the 
recognized  Caucasians  to  be  included  with  them.  This  is  true 
of  the  black,  wavy-haired,  prognathous,  beetling-browed  Aus¬ 
tralians,  whose  first  appearance  suggests  that  they  are  Negroids, 
as  it  is  of  the  brown  Polynesians,  who  appear  to  have  Mon¬ 
goloid  connections  through  the  Malaysians.  In  India,  Indo- 
China,  and  the  East  Indies  live  a  scattered  series  of  uncivilized 
peoples  more  or  less  alike  in  being  dark,  short,  slender,  wavy 
haired,  longish  headed,  broad  nosed.  The  brows  are  knit,  the 
eyes  deep  set,  the  mouth  large,  beard  development  medium.  Re¬ 
semblances  are  on  the  one  hand  toward  the  Caucasian  type,  on 
the  other  toward  the  Australian,  just  as  the  geographical  position 
is  intermediate.  The  name  Indo-Australian  is  thus  appropriate 
for  this  group.  Typical  representatives  are  the  Yedda  of 
Ceylon;  the  Irula  and  some  of  the  Kolarian  tribes  of  India; 
many  of  the  Moi  of  several  parts  of  Indo-China;  the  Senoi  or 
Sakai  of  the  Malay  Peninsula;  the  Toala  of  Celebes.  These  are 
almost  invariably  hill  or  jungle  people,  who  evidently  represent 
an  old  stratum  of  population,  pushed  back  by  Caucasians  or 
Mongoloids,  or  almost  absorbed  by  them.  The  dark  strain  in 
India  seems  more  probably  due  to  these  people  than  to  any  true 
Negroid  infusion.  Possibly  the  Indo-Australians  branched  off 
from  the  Caucasian  stem  at  a  very  early  time  before  the  Cau¬ 
casian  stock  was  as  “ white’ 1  as  it  is  now.  In  the  lapse  of  ages 
the  greater  number  of  the  Caucasians  in  and  near  Europe  took 
on,  more  and  more,  their  present  characteristics,  whereas  this 
backward  branch  in  the  region  of  the  Indian  Ocean  kept  its 
primitive  and  undifferentiated  traits.  This  is  a  tempting  theory 


LIVING  RACES  47 

to  pursue,  but  it  extends  so  far  into  the  realm  of  the  hypo¬ 
thetical  that  its  just  appraisal  must  be  left  to  the  specialist. 

Figure  8  attempts  to  represent  graphically  the  degree  of 
resemblance  and  difference  between  the  principal  physical  types 


Fig.  8.  Relationship  of  the  human  races.  Distances  between  the 
centers  of  circles  are  indicative  of  the  degree  of  similarity. 


as  they  have  been  summarized  in  the  table  and  preceding  dis¬ 
cussion;  the  genealogical  tree  in  figure  9  is  an  endeavor  to  sug¬ 
gest  how  these  types  may  have  diverged  from  one  another  in 
their  development. 


\  Jcrcs-magmom 

oO  / 

GRIMALDI  X  J  / 


Y 


§ 

i 


.QNEANDERTAL 


Fig.  9.  Tentative  family  tree  of  the  human  races. 


LIVING  RACES 


49 


28.  Continents  and  Oceans 

One  fact  about  the  classification  stands  out  clearly,  namely, 
that  the  three  grand  races  are  not  limited  to  particular  conti¬ 
nents.  It  is  true  that  the  center  of  gravity  of  the  Caucasians 
is  in  or  near  Europe,  that  the  biggest  block  of  Negroids  is 
situated  in  Africa,  and  the  largest  mass  of  Mongoloids  in  Asia. 
It  is  even  possible  that  these  three  types  evolved  on  these  three 
continents.  But  each  of  them  is  inter-continental  in  its  present 
distribution.  Western  Asia  and  northern  Africa  as  well  as 
Europe  are  Caucasian.  There  are  Negroids  in  Oceania  as  well 
as  in  Africa,  and  the  Mongoloids  are  found  over  Oceania,  Asia, 
and  both  Americas. 

In  fact  the  distribution  of  the  three  primary  races  can  better 
be  described  as  oceanically  marginal  than  as  continental.  The 
Caucasian  parts  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa  surround  the 
Mediterranean  Sea.  The  African  and  the  Oceanic  branches  of 
the  Negroid  race  are  situated  on  the  left  and  right  sides  of  the 
Indian  Ocean.  The  Mongoloid  habitat  in  Oceania,  in  eastern 
Asia,  and  in  North  and  South  America  almost  encloses  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  (Figs.  10  and  11.) 

29.  The  History  of  Race  Classifications 

Most  of  the  early  classifications  of  mankind  tried  to  identify 
races  and  continents  too  closely.  The  first  attempt  was  that  of 
Linmeus  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  He  distin¬ 
guished  and  described  four  varieties  of  mankind,  which  he  called 
Europceus  albus,  Asiaticus  luridus,  Americanus  rufus,  and  Afer 
niger ;  that  is,  European  White,  Asiatic  Yellow,  American  Red, 
African  Black. 

The  next  classification,  that  of  Blumenbach  in  1775,  is  essen¬ 
tially  the  same  except  for  adding  a  fifth  or  Oceanic  variety. 
Blumenbach ’s  five  human  races,  the  Caucasian,  Mongolian, 
Ethiopian,  American,  and  Malayan,  still  survive  in  many  of  the 
geographies  of  our  elementary  schools,  usually  under  the  desig¬ 
nations  of  White,  Yellow,  Black,  Red,  and  Brown;  but  they  no 
longer  receive  scientific  recognition. 


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LIVING  RACES 


51 


As  time  went  on,  the  continental  principle  of  race  classifica¬ 
tion  came  to  be  recognized  as  inadequate,  and  there  was  a  tend¬ 
ency  among  anthropologists  to  accept  the  distinctness  of  certain 


4 


Fig.  11.  Circumpolar  map  of  primary  race  distribution  (legend  as 
in  Figure  10). 


specialized  groups  like  the  Australians,  Bushmen,  Eskimo,  and 
Ainu,  which  were  often  elevated  into  races  substantially  equal 
in  rank  with  the  great  races  like  the  Mongoloid.  Thus  Peschel 


52 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


distinguished:  (1)  Mediterranean  or  Caucasian;  (2)  Mongoloid 
(including  the  East  Indians  and  Americans);  (3)  Negro; 
(4)  Australian;  but  then  separated  off  (5)  Dravida  of  southern 
India;  (6)  Papuans,  and  (7)  Hottentot-Bushmen,  as  if  these 
smaller  groups  were  coordinate  with  the  grand  ones.  Nott  and 
Gliddon  also  recognized  seven  races,  although  somewhat  different 
ones:  European,  Asiatic,  Negro,  American,  Malay,  Australian, 
and  Arctic.  This  is  the  fivefold  scheme  of  Blumenbach  with 
Australian  and  Arctic  added. 

30.  Emergence  of  the  Threefold  Classification 

On  the  other  hand  the  feeling  gained  ground,  especially  as  the 
result  of  the  labors  of  French  anthropologists,  that  mankind 
could  be  satisfactorily  accounted  for  by  a  division  into  Cau¬ 
casian,  Negroid,  and  Mongoloid.  Those  who  adopted  this  prin¬ 
ciple  tried  to  fit  divergent  types  like  the  Australians  and  Poly¬ 
nesians  into  one  or  the  other  of  these  three  great  groups.  Some 
little  doctoring  had  to  be  done  in  this  process,  and  some  salient 
facts  estimated  rather  lightly.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  it  has 
seemed  best  here  not  to  make  our  tripartite  classification  too 
exhaustive.  This  threefold  classification  clearly  absorbs  the 
great  mass  of  mankind  without  straining,  but  it  is  soundest  to 
recognize  that  this  same  basic  classification  requires  a  certain 
margin  of  extensions  along  the  lines  indicated  in  our  table. 

The  classification  made  by  the  French  anthropologist  Deniker 
is  one  of  the  most  elaborate  yet  devised.  It  recognizes  6  grand 
divisions,  17  minor  divisions,  and  29  separate  races.  The  pri¬ 
mary  criterion  of  classification  is  hair  texture. 

Deniker’ s  Classification 

A.  Hair  woolly,  with  broad  nose. 

I.  1.  Bushman. 

II.  Negroid. 

2.  Negrito. 

3.  Negro. 

4.  Melanesian  (including  Papuan  of  New  Guinea). 

B.  Hair  curly  to  wavy. 

III.  5.  Ethiopian  (Sudan,  etc.). 


LIVING  RACES 


53 


IV.  6.  Australian. 

V.  7.  Dravidian  (southern  India). 

VI.  8.  Assyroid  (Kurds,  Armenians,  Jews). 

C.  Hair  Wavy. 

VII.  9.  Indo-Afghan. 

VIII.  North  African. 

10.  Arab  or  Semite. 

11.  Berber  (N.  Africa). 

IX.  Melanochroid. 

12.  Littoral  (W.  Mediterranean). 

13.  Ibero-insular  (Spain,  S.  Italy). 

14.  Western  European. 

15.  Adriatic  (N.  Italy,  Balkans). 

D.  Hair  wavy  to  straight,  with  light  eyes. 

X.  Xanthocliroid. 

16.  North  European. 

17.  East  European. 

E.  Hair  wavy  to  straight,  with  dark  eyes. 

XI.  '  18.  Ainu. 

XII.  Oceanian. 

19.  Polynesian. 

20.  Indonesian  (East  Indies). 

F.  Hair  straight. 

XIII.  American. 

21.  South  American. 

22.  North  American. 

23.  Central  American. 

24.  Patagonian. 

XIV.  25.  Eskimo. 

XV.  26.  Lapp. 

XVI.  Eurasian. 

27.  Ugrian  (E.  Russia). 

28.  Turco-Tartar  (S.W.  Siberia). 

XVII.  29.  Mongol  (E.  Asia). 

In  spite  of  its  apparent  complexity,  this  classification  coin¬ 
cides  quite  closely  with  the  classification  which  is  followed  in 
this  book.  Inspection  reveals  that  Deniker’s  grand  division  A 
is  Negroid,  C  and  D  Caucasian,  F  Mongoloid.  Of  his  two 
remaining  grand  divisions,  B  is  intermediate  between  A  and  C, 
that  is,  between  Negroid  and  Caucasian,  and  consists  of  peoples 


54 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


which  are  either,  like  the  East  Africans,  the  probable  result  of 
a  historical  mixture  of  Negroids  and  Caucasians,  or  which,  like 
the  Australians,  share  the  traits  of  both,  and  are  therefore 
admitted  to  have  a  doubtful  status.  The  other  grand  division, 
E,  is  transitional  between  Caucasian  D  and  Mongoloid  F,  and 
the  peoples  of  which  it  consists  are  those  whom  we  too  have 
recognized  as  difficult  to  assign  positively  to  either  stock.  In 
short,  Deniker’s  classification  is  much  the  more  refined,  ours  the 
simpler;  but  essentially  they  corroborate  one  another. 

31.  Other  Classifications 

Another  classification  that  puts  hair  texture  into  the  fore¬ 
front  is  that  of  F.  Muller.  This  runs  as  follows: 

A.  Ulotrichi  or  Woolly-haired. 

1.  Lophocomi  or  Tuft-haired:  Papua,  Hottentot-Buslimen. 

2.  Eriocomi  or  Fleecy -haired :  African  Negroes. 

B.  Lissotrichi  or  Straight-haired. 

3.  Euthycomi  or  Stiff-haired :  Australian,  Malay,  Mongolian, 

Arctic,  American. 

4.  Euplocomi  or  Wavy-haired:  Dravidian  (S.  India),  Nubian, 

( Sudan) ,  “Mediterranean” 

(Europe,  N.  Africa,  etc.). 

The  distinction  here  made  between  the  Tuft  and  Fleecy-haired 
groups  is  unsound.  It  rests  on  a  false  observation:  that  a  few 
races,  like  the  Bushmen,  had  their  head-hair  growing  out  of  the 
scalp  only  in  spots  or  tufts.  With  the  elimination  of  this  group, 
its  members  would  fall  into  the  Fleecy  or  Woolly-haired  one, 
which  would  thus  comprise  all  admitted  Negroids;  whereas  the 
two  remaining  groups,  the  Stiff  and  Wavy-haired,  obviously 
correspond  to  the  Mongoloid  and  Caucasian.  The  only  remain¬ 
ing  peculiarity  of  the  classification — and  in  this  point  also  it 
is  unquestionably  wrong — is  the  inclusion  of  the  Australians 
in  the  Stiff  or  Straight-haired  group.  But  even  this  error 
reflects  an  element  of  truth:  it  emphasizes  the  fact  that  in  spite 
of  their  black  skins,  broad  noses,  and  protruding  jaws,  the  Aus¬ 
tralians  are  not  straight-out  Negroids. 


LIVING  RACES 


55 


The  underlying  feature  of  this  classification,  after  allowing 
for  its  errors,  is  that  mankind  consists  of  two  rather  than  three 
main  branches :  the  Ulotrichi  or  Negroids,  as  opposed  to  the 
Lissotrichi  or  combined  Mongoloids  and  Caucasians.  This  basic 
idea  has  been  advocated  by  others.  Boas,  for  instance,  reckons 
Mongoloids  and  Caucasians  as  at  bottom  only  subtypes  of  a 
single  stock  with  which  the  Negroids  and  Australians  are  to  be 
contrasted. 

Somewhat  different  in  plan  is  Huxley’s  scheme,  which  recog¬ 
nizes  four  main  races,  or  five  including  a  transitional  one. 
These  are  (1)  Australioids,  including  Dravidians  and  Egyp¬ 
tians;  (2)  Negroids,  with  the  Bushmen  and  the  Oceanic 
Papuans,  Melanesians,  Tasmanians,  and  Negritos  as  two  sub- 
varieties;  (3)  Mongoloids,  as  customarily  accepted;  (4)  Xan- 
thochroi,  about  equivalent  to  Nordics  and  Alpines;  (5)  Melano- 
chroi,  nearly  the  same  as  the  Mediterraneans,  but  supposed  by 
Huxley  to  be  hybrid  or  intermediate  between  the  Xanthochroi 
and  Australioids.  This  classification  in  effect  emphasizes  the 
connection  between  Australoids  and  Caucasians,  with  the  Ne¬ 
groids  as  a  distinctive  group  on  one  side  and  the  Mongoloids 
on  the  other. 

Haeckel’s  classification  is  basically  similar,  in  that  besides 
the  usual  three  primary  stocks — which  he  elevates  into  species 
— he  recognizes  a  separate  group  comprising  the  Australians, 
Dravidians,  and  Vedda-like  Indo- Australians. 

32.  Principles  and  Conclusions  Common  to  All 

Classifications 

It  will  be  seen  that  in  spite  of  the  differences  and  uncertain¬ 
ties  as  yet  prevalent  in  any  scheme  for  classifying  the  human 
species,  certain  principles  stand  out  both  as  regards  method  and 
results ;  and  in  regard  to  these  principles  there  is  substantial 
agreement. 

First,  any  valid  classification  must  rest  on  a  combination  of 
as  many  traits  or  features  as  possible. 

Second,  several  features  of  the  human  body  are  of  definite  sig¬ 
nificance  for  the  discrimination  of  races.  Hair  and  hairiness 
are  unquestionably  of  great  importance;  stature,  except  in 


56 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


extreme  eases,  much  less  so.  Color  differences  in  the  skin,  hair, 
or  eyes  are  important  but  difficult  to  handle.  Shape  of  nose 
and  prognathism  are  useful  for  rough  classification.  The 
cephalic  index  possesses  an  exceptional  utility  in  making  the 
finer  discriminations. 

Third,  it  is  clearly  impossible  to  find  a  simple  and  consistent 
scheme  within  which  all  the  varieties  of  man  can  be  placed; 
We  must  not  attempt  more  than  nature  allows. 

On  the  other  hand  the  vast  bulk  of  mankind  does  fall  natu¬ 
rally  into  three  great  divisions,  each  of  which  again  subdivides 
into  three  or  four  principal  branches,  in  regard  to  whose  dis¬ 
tinctness  there  is  no  serious  difference  of  opinion.  The  scatter¬ 
ing  remainder  of  races  are  allied  sometimes  to  one  primary 
stock,  sometimes  to  another,  but  always  with  some  special 
peculiarities. 

From  such  a  classification  as  this,  especially  after  the  accumu¬ 
lation  of  large  series  of  accurate  measurements  which  will  per¬ 
mit  its  being  worked  out  to  greater  exactness,  we  may  hope 
ultimately  to  reconstruct  the  full  and  true  history  of  the  races 
of  men,  or,  in  any  event,  some  reasonable  hypothesis  as  to  their 
development.  As  yet,  however,  we  are  not  in  a  position  to 
account  for  the  origin  of  the  races  except  speculatively. 

33.  Race,  Nationality,  and  Language 

The  term  race  has  here  been  used  in  its  biological  sense,  for 
a  group  united  in  blood  or  heredity.  A  race  is  a  subdivision 
of  a  species  and  corresponds  to  a  breed  in  domestic  animals. 
Popularly,  the  word  is  used  in  a  different  sense,  namely  that 
of  a  population  having  any  traits  in  common,  be  they  hereditary 
or  non-hereditary,  biological  or  social  (Chapter  I).  It  is  cus¬ 
tomary,  but  scientifically  inaccurate,  to  speak  of  the  French 
race,  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  the  Gypsy  race,  the  Jewish  race. 
The  French  are  a  nation  and  nationality,  with  a  substantially 
common  speech;  biologically,  they  are  three  races  considerably 
mixed,  but  still  imperfectly  blended  (§  24).  Anglo-Saxon  refers 
primarily  to  speech,  incidentally  to  a  set  of  customs,  traditions, 
and  points  of  view  that  are  more  or  less  associated  with  the 
language.  The  Gypsies  are  a  self-constituted  caste,  with  folk- 


LIVING  RACES 


57 


ways,  occupations,  and  a  speech  of  their  own.  The  Jews,  who 
were  once  a  nationality,  at  present,  of  course,  form  a  religious 
body,  which  somewhat  variably,  in  part  from  inner  cohesion 
and  in  part  from  outer  pressure,  tends  also  to  constitute  a 
caste.  They  evince  little  hereditary  racial  type,  measurements 
indicating  that  in  each  country  they  approximate  the  physical 
type  of  the  gentile  population. 

It  may  seem  of  little  moment  whether  the  word  race  is  re¬ 
stricted  to  its  strict  biological  sense  or  used  more  loosely.  In 
fact,  however,  untold  loose  reasoning  has  resulted  from  the 
loose  terminology.  When  one  has  spoken  a  dozen  times  of 
‘‘the  French  race,”  one  tends  inevitably  to  think  of  the  in¬ 
habitants  of  France  as  a  biological  unit,  which  they  are  not. 
The  basis  of  the  error  is  confusion  of  organic  traits  and  processes 
with  superorganic  or  cultural  ones ;  of  heredity  with  tradition 
or  imitation.  That  civilizations,  languages,  and  nationalities  go 
on  for  generations  is  obviously  a  different  thing  from  their 
being  caused  by  generation.  Slovenly  thought,  tending  to  deal 
with  results  rather  than  causes  or  processes,  does  not  trouble 
to  make  this  discrimination,  and  every-day  speech,  dating  from 
a  pre-scientific  period,  is  ambiguous  about  it.  We  say  not  only 
‘  ‘  generation,  ’  ’  when  there  is  no  intent  to  imply  the  reproductive 
process,  but  “good  breeding”  (literally,  good  brooding  or  hatch¬ 
ing  or  birth),  when  we  mean  good  home  training  or  education; 
just  as  we  ‘  ‘  inherit 9  ’  a  fortune  or  a  name — social  things — as  well 
as  ineradicable  traits  like  brown  eye-color.  Biology  has  secured 
for  its  processes  the  exclusive  use  of  the  term  “heredity”;  and 
biologists  employ  the  term  “race”  only  with  reference  to  a 
hereditary  subdivision  of  a  species.  It  is  equally  important  that 
the  word  be  used  with  the  same  exact  denotation  in  anthro¬ 
pology,  else  all  discussion  of  race  degenerates  irretrievably  into 
illogical  sliding  in  and  out  between  organic  and  social  factors. 
The  inherently  great  difficulties  which  beset  the  understanding 
and  solution  of  what  are  generally  called  race  problems,  as  dis¬ 
cussed  in  the  next  chapter,  are  considerably  increased  by  a  con¬ 
fusion  between  what  is  and  what  is  not  racial  and  organic  and 
hereditary. 


CHAPTER  IY 


PROBLEMS  OF  RACE 

34.  Questions  of  endowment  and  their  validity. — 35.  Plan  of  inquiry. — 
36.  Anatomical  evidence  on  evolutionary  rank. — 37.  Comparative  physio¬ 
logical  data. — 38.  Disease. — 39.  Causes  of  cancer  incidence. — 40.  Mental 
achievement  and  social  environment. — 41.  Psychological  tests  on  the  sense 
faculties. — 42.  Intelligence  tests. — 43.  Status  of  hybrids. — 44.  Evidence 
from  the  cultural  record  of  races. — 45.  Emotional  bias. — 46.  Summary. 

34.  Questions  of  Endowment  and  Their  Validity 

Are  the  human  races  alike  or  dissimilar  in  mentality  and  char¬ 
acter?  Are  some  lower  than  others,  or  are  they  all  on  a  plane 
as  regards  potentiality?  The  answers  to  these  questions  are  of 
theoretical  import,  and  naturally  also  bear  on  the  solution  of 
the  practical  race  problems  with  which  many  nations  are  con¬ 
fronted. 

As  long  as  an  inquiry  remains  sufficiently  abstract  or  remote, 
the  desirability  of  such  inquiry  is  likely  to  go  unquestioned. 
As  soon,  however,  as  investigation  touches  -conduct — for  instance, 
our  actual  relations  with  other  races — a  sentiment  has  a  way  of 
rising,  to  the  effect  that  perhaps  after  all  the  problem  does  not 
so  much  call  for  knowledge  as  for  action.  Thus,  in  regard  to 
the  negro  problem  in  the  United  States,  it  is  likely  to  be  said 
that  the  immediate  issue  is  what  may  be  the  best  attitude  toward 
“Jim  Crow”  cars  and  other  forms  of  segregation.  Are  these 
desirable  or  undesirable,  fair  or  unfair?  Here  are  specific  prob¬ 
lems  which  an  actual  condition  presses  to  have  answered.  Under 
the  circumstances,  it  will  be  said,  is  not  an  inquiry  into  the 
innate  capacity  of  the  negro  rather  remote,  especially  when 
every  one  can  see  by  a  thousand  examples  that  the  negro  is 
obviously  inferior  to  the  Caucasian?  He  is  poorer,  more  shift¬ 
less,  less  successful.  He  has  made  no  inventions,  produced  no 
geniuses.  He  clearly  feels  himself  inferior  and  comports  him¬ 
self  accordingly.  Why  then  raise  the  issue  of  capacity  at  all, 

58 


PROBLEMS  OF  RACE 


59 


unless  from  a  desire  to  befog  it,  to  subvert  the  conclusions  of 
common  sense  and  every-day  experience  by  special  pleading 
which  substitutes  adroitness  for  sincerity?  When  a  prisoner 
has  been  found  guilty  it  is  the  judge ’s  business  to  determine  the 
length  of  sentence,  to  decide  how  far  justice  should  be  tempered 
with  mercy.  Were  he  to  reopen  the  case  from  the  beginning, 
he  would  be  showing  partiality.  Is  not  the  situation  of  the  scien¬ 
tist  proposing  to  inquire  into  the  accepted  verdict  that  the  negro 
is  inferior  to  the  Caucasian,  analogous  to  that  of  a  judge  who 
insists  on  setting  aside  the  verdict  of  twelve  unprejudiced  jury¬ 
men  in  order  to  retry  the  defendant  himself?  In  some  such 
form  as  this,  objections  may  rise  in  the  minds  of  some. 

The  answer  to  such  criticism  is  first  of  all  that  racial  infe¬ 
riority  and  superiority  are  by  no  means  self-evident  truths. 
Secondly,  the  belief  in  race  inequalities  is  founded  in  emotion 
and  action  and  then  justified  by  reasoning.  That  is,  the  belief 
is  rationalized,  not  primarily  inferred  by  pure  reason.  It  may 
be  true,  but  it  is  not  proved  true. 

As  to  what  is  self-evident,  there  is  nothing  so  misleading  as 
direct  observation.  We  see  the  sun  move  and  the  earth  stand 
still.  It  is  4 "self-evident”  that  the  sun  revolves  around  the 
earth.  Yet  after  thousands  of  years  the  civilized  portion  of 
mankind  finally  came  to  believe  that  it  was  the  earth  that  spun. 
Science  had  no  perverse  interest,  no  insidious  motive,  in  advo¬ 
cating  the  Copernican  instead  of  the  Ptolemaic  system;  in  fact, 
was  driven  to  its  new  belief  gradually  and  reluctantly.  It  was 
pre-scientific  humanity,  with  its  direct,  homespun,  every-day  ob¬ 
servation,  which  had  really  prejudged  the  matter,  and  which, 
because  it  had  always  assumed  that  the  earth  was  flat  and  sta¬ 
tionary,  and  because  every  idiot  could  see  that  it  was  so,  long 
combated  the  idea  that  it  could  be  otherwise. 

As  to  opinions  founded  in  emotion  and  subsequently  ration¬ 
alized,  instead  of  being  evolved  by  pure  reason  from  evidence, 
it  may  suffice  to  quote  from  a  famous  book  on  herd  instinct,  as 
to  the  relation  of  mass  opinion  and  science : 

“When,  therefore,  we  find  ourselves  entertaining  an  opinion 
about  the  basis  of  which  there  is  a  quality  of  feeling  which  tells 
us  that  to  inquire  into  it  would  be  absurd,  obviously  unneces¬ 
sary,  unprofitable,  undesirable,  bad  form,  or  wicked,  we  may 


60 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


know  that  that  opinion  is  a  non-rational  one,  and  probably, 
therefore,  founded  upon  inadequate  evidence. 

“  Opinions,  on  the  other  hand,  which  are  acquired  as  the  result 
of  experience  alone  do  not  possess  this  quality  of  primary  cer¬ 
titude.  They  are  true  in  the  sense  of  being  verifiable,  but  they 
are  unaccompanied  by  that  profound  feeling  of  truth  which 
belief  possesses,  and,  therefore,  we  have  no  sense  of  reluctance 
in  admitting  inquiry  into  them.  That  heavy  bodies  tend  to  fall 
to  the  earth  and  that  fire  burns  fingers  are  truths  verifiable  and 
verified  every  day,  but  we  do  not  hold  them  with  impassioned 
certitude,  and  we  do  not  resent  or  resist  inquiry  into  their  basis ; 
whereas  in  such  a  question  as  that  of  the  survival  of  death  by 
human  personality  we  hold  the  favorable  or  the  adverse  view 
with  a  quality  of  feeling  entirely  different,  and  of  such  a  kind 
that  inquiry  into  the  matter  is  looked  upon  as  disreputable  by 
orthodox  science  and  as  wicked  by  orthodox  religion.  In  relation 
to  this  subject,  it  may  be  remarked,  we  often  see  it  very  inter¬ 
estingly  shown  that  the  holders  of  two  diametrically  opposed 
opinions,  one  of  which  is  certainly  right,  may  both  show  by  their 
attitude  that  the  belief  is  held  instinctively  and  non-rationally, 
as,  for  example,  when  an  atheist  and  a  Christian  unite  in  re¬ 
pudiating  inquiry  into  the  existence  of  the  soul.” 

Take  the  attitude  of  the  average  Californian  or  Australian 
about  the  Mongolian;  of  the  Texan  about  the  Mexican;  of  the 
Southerner  about  the  Negro;  of  the  Westerner  about  the  local 
tribes  of  Indians ;  of  the  Englishman  about  the  Hindu — is  not 
their  feeling  exactly  described  by  the  statement  that  inquiry  into 
the  possibility  of  racial  equality  would  be  “unnecessary,” 
“absurd,”  or  evilly  motivated;  and  that  their  belief  in 
race  superiority  rests  on  an  “a  priori  synthesis  of  the  most 
perfect  sort,”  and  possesses  “the  quality  of  primary  certi¬ 
tude  ’  ’  ? 

In  short,  the  apparently  theoretical  beliefs  held  as  to  race 
capacity  by  people  who  are  actually  confronted  by  a  race  con¬ 
flict  or  problem  are  by  no  means  the  outcome  of  impartial  exami¬ 
nation  and  verification,  but  are  the  result  of  the  decisions  taken 
and  emotions  experienced  in  the  course  of  acts  performed  toward 
the  other  race.  The  beliefs  rest  ultimately  on  impulse  and  feel¬ 
ing;  their  reasoned  support  is  a  subsequent  bolstering  up.  Of 


PROBLEMS  OF  RACE 


61 


course,  the  fact  that  a  belief  springs  from  emotion  does  not 
render  that  belief  untrue,  but  does  leave  it  scientifically  un¬ 
proved,  and  calling  for  investigation. 

These  conclusions  may  vindicate  inquiry  into  the  relative 
capacity  of  races  from  the  charge  of  being  finespun,  insidious, 
impractical,  or  immoral. 

% 

35.  Plan  of  Inquiry 

In  approach  to  the  problem,  a  consideration  stands  out.  If 
the  human  races  are  identical  in  capacity,  or  if,  though  not  abso¬ 
lutely  alike,  they  average  substantially  the  same  in  the  sum 
total  of  their  capacities,  then  such  differences  as  they  have 
shown  in  their  history  or  show  in  their  present  condition  must 
evidently  be  the  result  mainly  of  circumstances  external  to 
heredity.  In  that  case,  knowledge  of  the  historical  or  environ¬ 
mental  circumstances,  and  analysis  of  the  latter,  become  all- 
important  to  understanding.  On  the  other  hand,  if  hereditary 
racial  inequalities  exist,  one  can  expect  that  the  historical  or 
cultural  influences,  however  great  they  may  be,  will  nevertheless 
tend  to  have  their  origin  in  the  hereditary  factors  and  to 
reinforce  them.  In  that  case,  differences  between  two  groups 
would  be  due  partly  to  underlying  heredity  and  partly  to  over- 
lying  cultural  forces  tending  on  the  whole  in  the  same  direction. 
Yet  even  in  that  case,  before  one  could  begin  to  estimate  the 
strength  of  the  true  racial  factors,  the  historical  ones  would 
have  to  be  subtracted.  Thus,  in  either  event,  the  first  crux  of 
the  problem  lies  in  the  recognition  and  stripping  off  of  cultural, 
social,  or  environmental  factors,  so  far  as  possible,  from  the  com¬ 
plex  mass  of  phenomena  which  living  human  groups  present. 
In  proportion  as  these  social  or  acquired  traits  can  be  deter¬ 
mined  and  discounted,  the  innate  and  truly  racial  ones  will  be 
isolated,  and  can  then  be  examined,  weighed,  and  compared. 
Such,  at  any  rate,  is  a  reasonable  plan  of  procedure.  We  are 
looking  for  the  inherent,  ineradicable  elements  in  a  social  ani¬ 
mal  that  has  everywhere  built  up  around  himself  an  environ¬ 
ment — namely,  his  culture — in  which  he  mentally  lives  and 
breathes.  It  is  precisely  because  in  the  present  inquiry  we  wish 
to  get  below  the  effects  of  culture  that  we  must  be  ready  to 


62  ANTHROPOLOGY 

concern  ourselves  considerably  with  these  effects,  actual  or 
possible. 

36.  Anatomical  Evidence  on  Evolutionary  Rank 

But  first  of  all  it  may  be  well  to  consider  the  relatively  simple 
evidence  which  has  to  do  with  the  physical  form  and  structure 
of  race  types.  If  one  human  race  should  prove  definitely  nearer 
to  the  apes  in  its  anatomy  than  the  other  races,  there  would  be 
reason  to  believe  that  it  had  lagged  in  evolution.  Also  there 
would  be  some  presumption  that  its  arrears  were  mental  as 
well  as  physical. 

But  the  facts  do  not  run  consistently.  One  thinks  of  the  Negro 
as  simian.  His  jaws  are  prognathous ;  his  forehead  recedes ;  his 
nose  is  both  broad  and  low.  Further,  it  is  among  Caucasians 
that  the  antithetical  traits  occur.  In  straightness  of  jaws  and 
forehead,  prominence  and  narrowness  of  nose,  Caucasians  in 
general  exceed  the  Mongoloids.  Thus  the  order  as  regards  these 
particular  traits  is:  ape,  Negroid,  Mongoloid,  Caucasian.  With 
ourselves  at  one  end  and  the  monkey  at  the  other,  the  scale 
somehow  seems  right.  It  appeals,  and  seems  significant.  Facts 
of  this  sort  are  therefore  readily  observed,  come  to  be  remem¬ 
bered,  and  rise  spontaneously  to  mind  in  an  argument  on  race 
differences. 

However,  there  are  numerous  items  that  conflict  with  this 
sequence.  For  instance,  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  differences 
of  man  from  the  apes  is  his  relative  hairlessness.  Of  the  three 
main  stocks,  however,  it  is  the  Caucasian  that  is  the  most  hairy. 
Both  Mongoloids  and  Negroids  are  more  smooth-skinned  on  face 
and  on  body. 

In  hair  texture,  the  straight-haired  Mongoloid  is  nearest  the 
apes,  the  wavy-haired  Caucasian  comes  next,  and  the  woolly 
Negroid  is  the  most  characteristically  human,  or  at  least  un> 
simian. 

In  the  length  of  head  hair,  in  which  man  differs  notably  from 
the  monkeys,  the  relatively  short-haired  Negro  once  more  ap¬ 
proximates  most  closely  to  the  ape,  but  the  long-haired  Mon¬ 
goloid  surpasses  the  intermediate  Caucasian  in  degree  of  depar¬ 
ture. 


PROBLEMS  OF  RACE 


G3 


Lip  color  reverses  this  order.  The  apes’  lips  are  thin  and 
grayish;  Mongoloid  lips  come  next;  then  those  of  Caucasians; 
the  full,  vivid,  red  lips  of  the  Negro  are  the  most  unapelike 
of  all. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  multiply  examples.  If  one  human  racial 
stock  falls  below  others  in  certain  traits,  it  rises  above  them  in 
other  features,  insofar  as  “ below”  and  “ above”  may  be  meas¬ 
urable  in  terms  of  degree  of  resemblance  to  the  apes.  The  only 
way  in  which  a  decision  could  be  arrived  at  along  this  line  of 
consideration  would  be  to  count  all  features  to  see  whether  the 
Negro  or  the  Caucasian  or  the  Mongoloid  was  the  most  un¬ 
apelike  in  the  plurality  of  cases.  It  is  possible  that  in  such  a 
reckoning  the  Caucasian  would  emerge  with  a  lead.  But  it  is 
even  more  clear  that  whichever  way  the  majority  fell,  it  would 
be  a  well  divided  count.  If  the  Negro  were  more  apelike  than 
the  Caucasian  in  all  of  his  features,  or  in  eight  out  of  ten,  the 
fact  would  be  heavily  significant.  With  his  simian  resemblances 
aggregating  to  those  of  the  Caucasian  in  a  ratio  of  say  four  to 
three,  the  margin  would  be  so  close  as  to  lose  nearly  all  its 
meaning.  It  is  apparently  some  such  ratio  as  this,  or  an  even 
more  balanced  one,  that  would  emerge,  so  far  as  we  can  judge, 
if  it  were  feasible  to  take  a  census  of  all  features. 

It  should  be  added  that  such  a  method  of  comparison  as  this 
suffers  from  two  drawbacks.  First,  the  most  closely  related 
forms  now  and  then  diverge  sharply  in  certain  particulars ;  and 
second,  a  form  which  on  the  whole  is  highly  specialized  may 
yet  have  remained  more  primitive,  or  have  reverted  to  greater-, 
primitiveness  in  a  few  of  its  traits,  than  relatively  unevolved 
races  or  species. 

Thus,  the  anthropoid  apes  are  brachycephalic,  but  all  known 
types  of  Palaeolithic  man  are  dolichocephalic.  Matched  against 
the  apes,  the  long-headed  Negro  would  therefore  seem  to  be  the 
most  humanly  specialized  stock.  Compared  however  with  the 
fossil  human  forms,  the  Negro  is  the  most  primitive  in  this  fea¬ 
ture,  and  the  Mongoloid  and  Alpine  Caucasian  could  be  said  to 
have  evolved  the  farthest  because  their  heads  are  the  roundest. 
Yet  their  degree  of  brachycephaly  is  approximately  that  of  the 
anthropoid  apes.  To  which  criterion  shall  be  given  precedence? 
It  is  impossible  to  say.  Quite  likely  the  round-lieadedness  of 


64 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


the  apes  represents  a  special  trait  which  they  acquired  since 
their  divergence  from  the  common  hominid  ancestral  stem.  If 
so,  their  round-headedness  and  that  of  the  Mongoloids  is  simply 
a  case  of  convergent  evolution,  of  a  character  repeating  inde¬ 
pendently,  and  therefore  no  evidence  of  Mongoloid  primitive¬ 
ness.  Yet,  if  so,  the  long-headedness  common  to  the  early  human 
races  and  the  modern  Negroids  would  probably  also  mean 
nothing. 

It  is  even  clearer  that  other  traits  have  been  acquired  inde¬ 
pendently,  have  been  secondarily  evolved  over  again.  Thus  the 
supraorbital  ridges.  When  one  observes  the  consistency  with 
which  these  are  heavy  in  practically  all  Neandertal  specimens ; 
how  they  are  still  more  conspicuous  in  Pithecanthropus  and 
Rhodesian  man;  how  the  male  gorilla  shows  them  enormously 
developed ;  and  that  among  living  races  they  are  perhaps 
strongest  in  the  lowly  Australian,  it  is  tempting  to  look  upon 
this  bony  development  as  a  definite  sign  of  primitiveness.  Yet 
there  is  an  array  of  contradicting  facts.  The  youthful  gorilla 
and  adult  orang  are  without  supraorbital  development.  The 
male  gorilla  ha3  his  powerful  brows  for  the  same  reason  that  he 
lias  the  crest  along  the  top  of  his  skull:  they  are  needed  as 
attachments  for  his  powerful  musculature.  They  are  evidently 
a  secondary  sex  character  developed  within  the  species.  So 
among  fossil  men  there  seem  to  have  been  two  strains:  one  rep¬ 
resented  by  Pithecanthropus  and  Neandertal  man  and  the  Rho¬ 
desian  race,  which  tended  toward  supraorbital  massiveness ;  and 
another,  of  which  Piltdown  man  is  representative,  which  was 
smooth  of  forehead.  Among  living  races  the  Asiatic  Mongoloids 
lack  marked  supraorbital  development ;  the  closely  related 
American  Indians  possess  it  rather  strongly;  Caucasians  and 
Negroes  show  little  of  the  feature;  Australians  most  of  all. 
Evidently  it  would  be  unsafe  to  build  much  conclusion  on  either 
the  presence  or  absence  of  supraorbital  ridges. 

Perhaps  these  instances  will  suffice  to  show  that  even  the  mere 
physical  rating  of  human  races  is  far  from  a  simple  or  easy 
task.  It  is  doubtful  whether  as  yet  it  is  valid  to  speak  of  one 
race  as  physically  higher  or  more  advanced,  or  more  human 
and  less  brutish,  than  another.  This  is  not  an  outright  denial 
of  the  possibility  of  such  differential  ratings:  it  is  a  denial  only 


PROBLEMS  OP  RACE  65 

of  the  belief  that  such  differentials  have  been  established  as 
demonstrable. 

37.  Comparative  Physiological  Data 

There  is  another  angle  of  approach.  This  consists  in  aban¬ 
doning  the  direct  attempt  to  rate  the  races  in  anatomical  terms, 
and  inquiring  instead  whether  they  show  any  physiological  dif¬ 
ferences.  If  such  differences  can  be  found,  they  may  then  per¬ 
haps  be  interpretable  as  differences  in  activity,  responsiveness, 
endurance,  or  similar  constitutional  qualities.  If  the  bodies  of 
two  races  behave  differently,  we  should  have  considerable  reason 
to  believe  that  their  minds  also  behaved  differently. 

Unfortunately,  we  possess  fewer  data  on  comparative  physi¬ 
ology  than  on  comparative  anatomy.  The  evidence  is  more 
fluctuating  and  intricate,  and  requires  more  patience  to  assemble. 
Unfortunately,  too,  for  the  purposes  of  our  inquiry,  the  races 
come  out  almost  exactly  alike  in  the  simpler  physiological  reac¬ 
tions.  The  normal  body  temperature  for  Caucasian  adults  is 
37°  (98.5  F.),  the  pulse  about  70,  the  respiration  rate  around 
17  or  18  per  minute.  If  the  Negro’s  temperature  averaged  even 
a  degree  higher,  one  might  expect  him  to  behave,  normally,  a 
little  more  feverishly,  to  respond  to  stimulus  with  more  vehe¬ 
mence,  to  move  more  quickly  or  more  restlessly.  Or,  if  the  pulse 
rate  of  Mongolians  were  definitely  lower,  they  might  be  expected 
to  react  more  sluggishly,  more  sedately,  like  aging  Caucasians. 
But  such  observations  as  are  available,  though  they  are  far 
from  as  numerous  as  is  desirable,  reveal  no  such  differences: 
temperature,  pulse,  respiration,  record  the  same  as  among  Cau¬ 
casians,  or  differ  so  slightly,  or  so  conflictingly,  as  to  leave  no 
room  for  positive  conclusions.  Certainly  if  there  existed  any 
important  racial  peculiarities,  they  would  have  been  noted  by 
the  physicians  who  at  one  time  or  another  have  examined  mil¬ 
lions  of  Negroes,  Chinese,  Japanese,  and  thousands  of  Indians 
and  Polynesians. 

Apparently  there  is  only  one  record  that  even  hints  at  any¬ 
thing  significant.  Hrdlicka,  among  some  700  Indians  of  the 
Southwestern  United  States  and  Northwestern  Mexico,  found 
the  pulse  to  average  about  60  per  minute,  or  ten  beats  less  than 


66 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


among  whites.  This  would  seem  to  accord  with  the  general  im¬ 
pression  of  Indian  mentality  as  stolid,  reserved,  slow,  and  steady. 
But  the  number  of  observations  is  after  all  rather  small ;  the 
part  of  the  race  represented  by  them  is  limited;  and  the  habitat 
of  the  group  of  tribes  is  mostly  a  high  plateau,  and  altitude 
notoriously  affects  heart  action.  Considerable  corroboration  will 
therefore  be  needed  before  any  serious  conclusions  can  be  built 
upon  this  suggestive  set  of  data. 

There  are  other  physiological  functions  that  are  likely  to  mean 
more  than  the  rather  gross  ones  just  considered:  for  instance, 
the  activity  of  the  endocrines  or  glands  of  internal  secretion. 
An  excess  or  deficiency  of  activity  of  the  thyroid,  pituitary, 
adrenals,  and  sex  glands  affects  not  only  health,  but  the  type  of 
personality  and  its  emotional  and  intellectual  reactions.  For 
example,  cretinism  with  its  accompaniment  of  near-idiocy  is  the 
result  of  thyroidal  under-development  or  under-functioning,  and 
is  often  cured  by  supplying  the  lack  of  thyroidal  substance  and 
secretion.  But  this  subject  is  as  difficult  as  it  is  interesting;  to 
date,  absolutely  nothing  is  known  about  endocrine  race  differ¬ 
ences.  It  would  be  a  relatively  simple  matter  to  secure  first¬ 
hand  information  on  the  anatomy  of  the  endocrine  glands  in 
Negroes  as  compared  with  whites ;  to  ascertain  whether  these 
differed  normally  in  size,  weight,  shape,  or  structure,  and  how. 
But  this  knowledge  has  scarcely  been  attempted  systematically, 
and  still  less  is  any  knowledge  available  in  the  more  delicate 
and  complex  field  of  the  workings  of  the  organs.  To  be  sure, 
theories  have  been  advanced  that  race  differentiation  itself  may 
be  mainly  the  result  of  endocrine  differentiations.  There  is 
something  fascinating  about  such  conjectures,  but  it  is  well  to 
remember  that  they  are  unmitigated  guesses. 


38.  Disease 

Pathology  might  seem  to  promise  more  than  normal  physi¬ 
ology.  So  far  as  mortality  goes,  there  are  enormous  differences  * 
between  races.  And  the  mortality  is  often  largely  the  result  of 
particular  diseases.  Measles,  for  instance,  has  often  been  a 
deadly  epidemic  to  uncivilized  peoples,  and  smallpox  has  in  some 
regions  at  times  taken  toll  of  a  quarter  of  the  population  in  a 


PROBLEMS  OF  RACE 


67 


year  or  two.  Yet  it  is  short-sighted  to  infer  from  such  cases 
any  racial  predisposition  or  lack  of  resistance.  The  peoples  in 
question  have  been  free  for  generations,  perhaps  for  their  entire 
history,  from  these  diseases,  and  have  therefore  not  maintained 
or  acquired  immunity.  Their  difference  from  us  is  thus  essen¬ 
tially  in  experience,  not  hereditary  or  racial.  This  is  confirmed 
by  the  fact  that  after  a  generation  or  two  the  same  epidemics 
that  at  first  were  so  deadly  to  Polynesians  or  American  Indians 
sink  to  almost  the  same  level  of  mild  virulence  as  they  show 
among  ourselves. 

Then,  too,  immediate  environment  plays  a  part.  The  savage 
often  has  no  idea  of  contagion,  and  still  less  of  guarding  against 
it;  he  thinks  in  terms  of  magic  instead  of  physiology — and  suc¬ 
cumbs.  How  far  heavy  mortality  is  the  result  of  lack  of  resist¬ 
ance  or  of  fundamentally  vicious  treatment,  is  often  hard  to 
say.  If  we  tried  to  cure  smallpox  by  subjecting  patients  to  a 
steam-bath  and  then  having  them  plunge  into  a  wintry  river,  we 
should  perhaps  look  upon  the  disease  as  a  very  nearly  fatal 
one  to  the  Caucasian  race. 

39.  Causes  of  Cancer  Incidence 

It  may  be  worth  while  to  consider  briefly  the  facts  as  to  mor¬ 
tality  from  cancer.  This  dread  disease  appears  to  be  not  con¬ 
tagious,  so  that  the  factor  of  acquired  immunity  is  eliminated. 
It  is  regarded  as  incurable,  except  by  operation,  so  that  differ¬ 
ences  in  treatment  become  relatively  unimportant.  If  therefore 
significant  differences  in  racial  liability  to  cancer  exist,  they 
should  emerge  with  unusual  clearness  and  certainty. 

At  first  sight  they  seem  to.  It  has  been  alleged  that  the  white 
race  is  the  most  susceptible  to  this  affliction.  The  supporting 
figures  are  as  follows:  cancer  deaths  per  year  per  100,000 
population. 


1906-10  Denmark  .  137 

England .  94 

United  States . 73 

1909-11  Johannesburg,  whites  .  52 

Negroes  . .  . .  14 

1906-10  Natal,  Europeans  . 56 

East  Indians  .  11 


68  ANTHROPOLOGY 

1906-10  Hongkong,  Europeans  . 

Chinese  . 

1912  Dutch  East  Indies,  Europeans 

1906-10  Singapore,  natives . 

Straits  Settlements,  natives . 

Ceylon,  natives . 

Calcutta,  natives . 

1908-13  Manila,  whites  . 

Filipinos  . 

Chinese  . 

1910-12  United  States,  whites  . 

Negroes  . 

1914  United  States,  Indians . 


53 

5 

81 

13 

10 

5 

11 

51 

27 

19 

77 

56 

4 


It  would  seem  from  these  figures  that  Caucasians  die  more 
frequently  of  cancer  than  members  of  the  darker  races.  In  fact, 
this  has  been  asserted.  Let  us  however  continue  with  figures. 


1908-12  Large  cities,  latitudes  60°-50°  North. .  106 

50°-40°  “  92 

40°-30  “  78 

30°  Nortli-30o  South . 38-42 

30°-40°  South  .  90 


This  table  would  make  cancer  mortality  largely  a  function  of 
geographical  latitude,  instead  of  race. 

Another  factor  enters:  occupation.  The  following  data  give 
the  death  rate  per  100,000  population  among  males  of  45-54 
in  England  and  Wales. 


1890-92  1900-02 


Lawyers .  199  159 

Physicians  .  102  121 

Clergymen .  81  91 


Chimneysweeps 

Brewers  . 

Metal  workers 
Gardeners 


532 

287 

190 

239 

120 

137 

88 

93 

All  occupations 


118  145 


That  the  relative  incidence  is  more  than  a  temporary  accident 
is  shown  by  the  approximate  recurrence  of  the  frequencies  after 
ten  years. 

In  proportion  as  latitude  and  occupation  influence  the  occur¬ 
rence  of  cancer,  race  is  diminished  as  a  cause.  It  is  reduced  still 


PROBLEMS  OP  RACE 


69 


further  by  other  considerations.  The  rate  for  Austria  in  1906-10 
was  78,  for  Hungary  44.  Here  the  race  is  the  same:  the  differ¬ 
ence  must  be  social.  Austria  averaged  higher  in  wealth,  educa¬ 
tion,  medical  development.  This  fact  would  tend  to  have  a 
double  effect.  First,  among  the  more  backward  population,  a 
certain  proportion  would  die  of  internal  cancers  difficult  to 
diagnose,  without  the  cause  being  recognized,  owing  to  insuffi¬ 
cient  medical  treatment.  Second,  the  general  death  rate  would 
be  higher.  More  children  and  young  people  would  die  of  infec¬ 
tious  or  preventable  disease,  leaving  fewer  survivors  to  die  of 
cancer  in  middle  and  old  age.  Wherever,  on  the  other  hand,  a 
public  is  medically  educated,  and  typhoid,  smallpox,  diphtheria, 
tuberculosis  claim  fewer  victims,  the  proportion  of  those  dying 
of  cancer,  nephritis,  heart  diseases,  increases.  Such  an  increase 
is  noted  everywhere,  and  goes  hand  in  hand  with  a  longer 
average  life.  The  alarm  sometimes  felt  at  the  modern  ‘  ‘  increase  ’  ’ 
of  cancer  is  therefore  unfounded,  because  it  is  perhaps  mainly 
apparent.  If  a  larger  percentage  of  the  population  each  year 
died  of  old  age,  it  would  be  a  sign  that  sanitation  and  medicine 
were  increasingly  effective:  evidence  that  more  people  lived  to 
become  old,  not  that  age  debility  was  spreading. 

Consequently,  a  high  degree  of  modern  civilization  must  tend 
to  raise  the  cancer  rate ;  and  any  group  of  people  will  seem  rela¬ 
tively  immune  from  cancer  in  proportion  as  they  remain  re¬ 
moved  from  attaining  to  this  civilization.  In  Hungary,  from 
1901-04,  the  cancer  deaths  were  239  among  the  owners  of  large 
farms,  41  among  the  owners  of  small  farms ;  108  among  employ¬ 
ing  blacksmiths,  25  among  their  employees;  114  among  employ¬ 
ing  tailors,  32  among  employed  tailors.  Obviously  these  pairs 
of  groups  differ  chiefly  in  their  economic  and  cultural  status. 

Here  too  lies  the  explanation  of  why  the  South  African  negro 
shows  a  rate  of  only  14,  the  United  States  negro  of  56 ;  also  why 
the  Chinese  rate  is  as  low  as  5  in  Hongkong,  rises  to  19  in 
Manila,  and  26  in  Hawaii,  while  the  closely  allied  Japanese 
average  62  for  the  whole  of  Japan — as  compared  with  50  for 
Spain,  which  is  pure  Caucasian,  but  one  of  the  most  backward 
countries  in  Europe.  In  Tokyo  and  Kyoto  the  rate  soars  to  73 
and  90  respectively,  just  as  in  the  United  States  it  is  about  10 
higher  for  the  urban  than  for  the  rural  population. 


70 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


Within  the  United  States,  also,  the  rate  rises  and  falls  almost 
parallel  for  whites  and  Negroes  according  to  locality;  as, 


1906-10 

White 

Negro 

Memphis . 

.  59 

34 

Charleston  . 

.  73 

37 

Nashville  . 

.  74 

55 

New  Orleans  . 

.  86 

73 

If  allowance  is  made  for  the  facts  that  the  negro  population 
of  the  United  States  is  poorer  and  less  educated  than  the  white ; 
that  it  lives  mainly  in  lower  latitudes;  and  that  it  tends  to  be 
rural  rather  than  urban,  the  comparative  cancer  death  rates  for 
the  country  of  negro  56  and  white  77  would  appear  to  be  ac¬ 
counted  for,  without  bringing  race  into  consideration. 

In  short,  what  at  first  glance,  or  to  a  partisan  pleader,  would 
seem  to  be  a  notable  race  difference  in  cancer  liability,  turns  out 
so  overwhelmingly  due  to  environmental  and  social  causes  as  to 
leave  it  doubtful  whether  racial  heredity  enters  as  a  factor  at 
all.  This  is  not  an  assertion  that  race  has  nothing  whatever  to 
do  with  the  disease ;  it  is  an  assertion  that  in  the  present  state 
of  knowledge  an  inherent  or  permanent  connection  between 
race  and  cancer  incidence  has  not  been  demonstrated.  If 
there  is  such  a  connection,  it  is  evidently  a  slight  one,  heavily 
overlaid  by  non-racial  influences;  and  it  may  be  wholly  lack¬ 
ing. 

The  case  would  be  still  less  certain  for  most  other  diseases,  in 
which  environmental  factors  are  more  directly  and  obviously 
influential.  Racial  medical  science  is  not  impossible;  in  fact  it 
should  have  an  important  future  as  a  study ;  but  its  foundations 
are  not  yet  laid. 

% 

40.  Mental  Achievement  and  Social  Environment 

One  point  will  have  become  clear  in  the  course  of  the  fore¬ 
going  discussion:  namely,  how  far  the  difficulty  of  coming  to 
positive  conclusions  is  due  to  the  two  sets  of  interacting  causal 
factors,  the  hereditary  ones  and  the  environmental  ones  that 
play  upon  heredity.  The  environmental  factors  are  themselves 
a  composite  of  geographical  influences  and  of  the  economic,  cul- 


PROBLEMS  OF  RACE  71 

tural,  and  other  social  influences  that  human  beings  exert  upon 
each  other. 

If  this  intermingling  of  distinct  kinds  of  causes  is  true  of 
races  when  considered  from  the  side  of  physiology  and  medicine, 
it  is  evident  that  the  intermingling  will  be  even  more  intricate 
in  the  mental  sphere.  After  all,  bodily  functioning  varies  only 
within  fairly  definite  limits.  When  external  influences  press  too 
strongly  upon  the  innate  nature  of  the  organism,  the  latter  ceases 
to  function  and  dies.  The  mind,  on  the  other  hand,  however 
much  its  structure  may  be  given  by  heredity,  depends  for  its 
content  wholly  on  experience,  and  this  experience  can  be  thor¬ 
oughly  varied.  Individuals  of  the  same  organic  endowment  may 
conceivably  be  born  either  in  the  uppermost  stratum  of  a  highly 
refined  civilization,  or  among  the  most  backward  and  remote 
savages.  Whether  this  actually  happens,  and  to  what  degree,  is 
of  course  precisely  the  problem  which  we  are  trying  to  solve. 
But  that  it  is  theoretically  and  logically  possible  cannot  be  de¬ 
nied;  and  here  a  vicious  circle  of  reasoning  begins.  One  argu¬ 
ment  says :  there  have  been  no  recognized  geniuses  among  peo¬ 
ples  like  the  Hottentots,  and  the  sum  total  of  their  group  achieve¬ 
ment  is  ridiculously  small ;  therefore  it  is  clear  that  the  Hot¬ 
tentot  mind  must  be  inferior.  The  opposite  argument  runs: 
Hottentot  cultural  environment  is  so  poor  and  limited  that  the 
finest  mind  in  the  world  reared  under  its  influence  would  grow 
up  relatively  sterile  and  atrophied ;  therefore  it  is  probable  that 
the  mind  of  the  Hottentot  is  intrinsically  identical  with  our 
own,  or  at  least  of  equivalent  capacity,  and  that  Hottentot 
geniuses  have  actually  been  born  but  have  been  unable  to  flourish 
as  geniuses. 

Evidently  the  same  facts  are  before  those  who  advocate  these 
opposite  views,  but  these  facts  are  viewed  from  diametrically 
opposite  sides.  If  one  starts  to  travel  around  the  logical  circle 
in  one  direction,  one  can  keep  revolving  indefinitely  and  find 
ever  fresh  supporting  evidence.  If,  however,  one  begins  to 
revolve  around  the  same  circle  of  opinion  in  the  opposite  direc¬ 
tion,  it  is  just  as  easy  and  just  as  compelling  to  continue  to  think 
in  this  fashion  and  to  find  all  testimony  corroborative. 

In  such  a  situation  it  is  possible  to  realize  that  from  the  point 
of  view  of  proof,  or  objective  truth,  one  view  is  worth  as  much 


72 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


as  the  other:  which  is  nothing.  It  is  an  emotional  bias  that 
inclines  one  man  toward  the  conviction  of  race  superiority  and 
another  to  that  of  race  equality.  The  proofs  in  either  case  are 
for  the  most  part  a  mere  assembling  of  ex  parte  testimony.  It 
is  easy  enough  to  advocate  impartiality.  The  difficulty  is  in 
being  impartial;  because  both  the  hereditary  and  the  environ¬ 
mental  factors  are  in  reality  unknown  quantities.  What  we  have 
objectively  before  us  is  such  and  such  a  race  or  group  of  people, 
with  such  and  such  present  traits  and  historical  record.  These 
phenomena  being  the  product  of  the  interaction  of  the  two  sets 
of  causes,  we  could  of  course,  if  we  knew  the  strength  of  one, 
compute  the  strength  of  the  other.  But  as  we  have  isolated 
neither,  we  are  dealing  with  two  indeterminate  variables.  Evi¬ 
dently  the  only  way  out  of  the  dilemma,  at  any  rate  the  only 
scientific  way,  is  to  find  situations  in  which  one  of  the  factors 
is,  for  the  time  being,  fixed.  In  that  case  the  strength  of  the 
other  factor  will  of  course  be  proportionate  to  the  attainments 
of  the-  groups. 

Actually,  such  instances  are  excessively  difficult  to  find.  There 
are  occasional  individuals  with  identical  heredity,  namely,  twins 
produced  from  the  division  of  a  single  ovum.  In  such  twins, 
the  strength  of  environmental  influences  can  be  gauged  by  the 
difference  in  their  careers  and  achievements.  Yet  such  twins 
are  only  individuals,  and  it  is  illegitimate  to  make  far-reaching 
inferences  from  them  to  larger  groups,  such  as  the  races.  It  is 
conceivable  that  heredity  might  on  the  whole  be  a  more  powerful 
cause  than  environment,  and  racial  groups  still  average  substan¬ 
tially  alike  in  their  heredity.  Because  a  natively  gifted  and  a 
natively  stunted  individual  within  the  group  vary  conspicuously 
in  achievement,  even  under  similar  environment,  it  does  not  fol¬ 
low  that  races  differ  in  germ-plasm  because  they  differ  in 
achievements. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  one  sets  out  to  discover  cases  of  iden¬ 
tical  environment  for  distinct  racial  strains,  the  task  quickly 
becomes  even  more  difficult.  Very  little  analysis  usually  suffices 
to  show  that  the  environment  is  identical  only  up  to  a  certain 
point,  and  that  beyond  this  point  important  social  divergences 
begin.  Thus,  so  far  as  geographical  environment  goes,  the  Negro 
and  the  white  in  the  southern  United  States  are  under  the  same 


PROBLEMS  OF  RACE 


73 


conditions.  There  is  also  uniformity  of  some  of  the  gross  ex¬ 
ternals  of  cultural  environment.  Both  Negroes  and  whites  speak 
English ;  are  Christians ;  plant  corn ;  go  to  the  circus ;  and  so 
on.  But,  just  as  obviously,  there  are  aspects  in  which  their 
social  environment  differs  profoundly.  Educational  opportuni¬ 
ties  are  widely  different.  The  opportunity  of  attaining  leader¬ 
ship  or  otherwise  satisfying  ambition  is  wide  open  to  the  white, 
and  practically  closed  to  the  Negro.  The  ‘  ‘  color-line  ’ ’  inevitably 
cuts  across  the  social  environment  and  makes  of  it  two  different 
environments. 

It  might  be  said  that  the  southern  United  States  furnish  an 
extreme  case  of  a  sharply  drawn  color-line.  This  is  true.  But 
on  the  other  hand  there  is  no  place  on  earth  where  something 
corresponding  to  a  color-line  is  not  drawn  between  two  races 
occupying  the  same  territory.  It  sometimes  happens  that  dis¬ 
tinctions  are  diminished  and  faintly  or  subtly  enforced,  as  in 
modern  Hawaii,  where  to  outward  appearances  many  races 
dwell  together  without  discrimination.  Yet  examination  reveals 
that  the  absence  of  discrimination  is  only  legal  and  perhaps 
economic.  As  regards  the  relations  and  associations  of  human 
beings,  the  welcome  which  they  extend  or  the  aloofness  which 
they  show  to  one  another,  there  is  always  a  color-line.  This 
means  not  only  difference  in  opportunity,  but  difference  in 
experience,  habit  formation,  practices,  and  interests. 

41.  Psychological  Tests  on  the  Sense  Faculties 

This  factor  of  experience  enters  even  into  what  appear  to  be 
the  simplest  mental  operations,  the  sensory  ones.  The  scant 
data  available  from  experimental  tests  indicate  that  a  variety 
of  dark  skinned  or  uncivilized  peoples,  including  Oceanic  and 
African  Negroids,  Negritos,  Ainus,  and  American  Indians,  on 
the  whole  slightly  surpass  civilized  whites  in  keenness  of  vision 
and  fineness  of  touch  discrimination,  whereas  the  whites  are 
somewhat  superior  in  acuity  of  hearing  and  sensitiveness  to  pain. 
Yet  what  do  these  these  results  of  measurements  mean? 

Vision  is  tested  for  its  distance  ability.  The  farther  off  one 
can  distinguish  objects  or  marks,  the  higher  one’s  rating. 
Civilized  man  reads — normally — at  14  inches.  He  works  with 


74 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


sharp  knives,  with  machines  that  are  exact ;  he  is  surrounded 
by  things  made  with  such  exact  machines ;  he  handles  thin  paper 
and  filmy  fabrics.  His  women  sew  and  embroider  with  the 
sharpest  of  needles,  the  finest  of  thread.  Everything  about  us 
tends  toward  close  accuracy  and  away  from  the  haziness  of  dis¬ 
tant  observation.  The  savage,  on  the  other  hand,  the  half- 
civilized  person  even,  inspects  the  horizon,  watches  for  game  or 
its  dim  tracks,  tries  to  peer  to  the  bottom  of  streams  for  fish. 
He  does  not  read,  his  needles  are  blunt,  his  thread  is  cord,  his 
carving  without  precision  even  though  decorative,  the  lines  he 
makes  are  free-hand  and  far-apart.  He  is  trained,  as  it  were, 
for  the  usual  vision  tests.  If  the  psychologist  reversed  his  ex¬ 
periment  and  sought  the  degree  of  power  to  see  fine  differences 
at  close  range,  it  is  possible  that  the  savage  miglit  prove  inferior 
because  untrained  by  his  experience.  Such  tests  seem  not  to 
have  been  made.  Until  they  are,  and  again  show  uncivilized 
man  superior,  there  is  no  real  proof  that  innate  racial  differences 
of  serious  moment  exist. 

The  whole  act  of  vision  in  fact  involves  more  than  we  ordi¬ 
narily  think.  After  all,  seeing  is  done  with  the  mind  as  well 
as  with  the  eye.  There  is  the  retinal  image,  but  there  is  also 
the  interpretation  of  this  image.  A  sailor  descries  the  distant 
shore,  whereas  the  landsman  sees  only  a  haze  on  the  horizon. 
To  the  city  dweller  a  horse  and  a  cow  a  mile  off  are  indistin¬ 
guishable.  Not  so  to  the  rancher.  There  is  something  almost 
imperceptible  about  the  profile  of  the  feeding  end  of  the  animal, 
about  its  movement,  that  promptly  and  surely  classes  it.  At  still 
longer  ranges,  where  the  individual  animals  have  wholly  faded 
from  sight,  a  herd  of  cattle  may  perhaps  be  told  from  one  of 
horses,  by  the  plainsman,  through  the  different  clouds  of  dust 
which  they  kick  up,  or  the  rate  of  motion  of  the  cloud.  An 
hour  later  when  the  herd  is  reached  and  proves  to  be  as  said, 
the  astonished  traveler  from  the  metropolis  is  likely  to  credit 
his  guide’s  eyes  with  an  intrinsic  power  greater  than  his  field 
glasses — forgetting  the  influence  of  experience  and  training. 

In  keenness  of  hearing,  on  the  contrary,  one  should  expect  the 
civilized  white  to  come  out  ahead,  as  in  fact  he  does ;  not  because 
he  is  Caucasian  but  because  he  is  civilized  and  because  the  in¬ 
struments  of  experimentation,  be  they  tuning  forks  or  ticking 


PROBLEMS  OF  RACE 


75 


watches  or  balls  dropped  on  metal  plates,  are  implements  of 
civilization.  Make  the  test  the  howl  of  a  distant  wolf,  or  the 
snapping  of  a  twig  as  the  boughs  bend  in  the  wind,  and  the 
college  student’s  hearing  might  prove  duller  than  that  of  the 
Indian  or  Ainu.  There  is  a  story  of  a  woodsman  on  a  busy 
thoroughfare,  amid  the  roar  of  traffic  and  multifarious  noise 
of  a  great  city,  hearing  a  cricket  chirp,  which  was  actually  dis¬ 
covered  in  a  near-by  open  cellar.  Extolled  for  his  miraculous 
keenness  of  audition,  the  man  in  the  fur  cap  dropped  a  small 
coin  on  the  pavement:  at  the  clink,  passers-by  across  the  street 
stopped  and  looked  around. 

As  to  the  pain  sense,  an  introspective,  interpretative  element 
necessarily  enters  into  experiments.  What  constitutes  pain? 
When  the  trial*  becomes  disagreeable?  When  it  hurts?  When 
it  is  excruciating?  The  savage  may  physiologically  feel  with 
his  nerve  ends  precisely  as  we  do.  But  being  reared  to  a  life 
of  chronic  slight  discomforts,  he  is  likely  to  think  nothing  of  the 
sensation  until  it  hurts  sharply;  whereas  we  signal  as  soon  as 
we  are  sure  that  the  experience  is  becoming  perceptibly  un¬ 
pleasant. 

In  short,  until  there  shall  have  been  more  numerous,  balanced, 
and  searching  tests  made,  it  must  be  considered  that  nothing 
positive  has  been  established  as  to  the  respective  sensory  facul¬ 
ties  of  the  several  human  races.  The  experiments  performed 
are  tests  not  so  much  of  race  as  of  the  average  experience  and 
habits  of  groups  of  different  culture. 

42.  Intelligence  Tests 

If  this  is  true  as  regards  the  sense  faculties,  it  might  be  ex¬ 
pected  to  hold  to  a  greater  degree  of  those  higher  mental  faculties 
which  we  call  intelligence;  and  such  is  the  case.  Intelligence 
tests  have  been  gradually  evolved  and  improved,  the  best  known 
being  the  Binet-Simon  series.  These  are  arranged  to  determine 
the  mental  age  of  the  subject.  Their  most  important  function 
accordingly  has  been  the  detection  of  defective  adults  or  back¬ 
ward  children.  During  the  World  War,  psychological  examina¬ 
tions  were  introduced  on  a  scale  unheard  of  before.  The  pur¬ 
pose  of  these  examinations  was  to  assign  men  to  the  tasks  best 


76 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


commensurate  with  their  true  abilities ;  especially  to  prevent  the 
unfit  from  being  entrusted  with  responsibility  under  which 
they  would  break  down  and  bring  failure  on  larger  undertakings. 
Men  subject  to  dizziness  were  to  be  kept  from  flying;  those 
unable  to  understand  orders,  out  of  active  line  service.  The 
tests  throughout  were  practical.  They  tried  to  decide  whether  a 
given  man  was  fit  or  unfit.  They  did  not  pretend  to  go  into  the 
causes  of  his  fitness  or  unfitness.  This  is  an  important  point. 
Whatever  illumination  the  army  intelligence  tests  shed  on  the 
problem  of  race  intelligence  is  therefore  indirect.  Different 
racial  or  national  groups  represented  in  the  examinations  attain 
different  capacity  ratings,  but  there  is  nothing  in  the  results 
themselves  to  show  whether  they  are  due  to  racial  or  environ¬ 
mental  factors.  Evidence  on  this  point,  if  it  can  be  derived  at  all 
from  the  tests,  has  to  be  “analyzed  out.” 

In  general,  examinees  in  the  United  States  were  rated  by  being 
assigned,  on  the  basis  of  their  scores,  to  grades  which  were 
lettered  from  A  to  E,  with  plus  and  minus  subgrades.  The  most 
comprehensive  presentation  of  results  is  to  express  the  percen¬ 
tage  of  individuals  in  each  group  that  made  the  middle  grade  C, 
better  than  C,  and  worse  than  C.  On  this  basis  we  find : 


Group  and  Number  of  Individuals 

Below  C 

C 

Above  G 

Englishmen,  411  . 

.  9 

71 

20 

White  draft  generally,  93,973 . 

.  24 

64 

12 

Italians,  4,007  . 

.  63 

36 

1 

Poles,  382  . 

.  70 

30 

(.6) 

Negroes  generally,  18,891  . 

.  79 

20 

1 

These  figures  at  face  value  seem  to  show  deep  group  differ¬ 
ences  in  intelligence;  and  these  face  values  have  been  widely 
accepted.  The  reason  is  that  they  flatter  national  and  race 
egotism.  To  be  sure,  the  Englishmen  in  the  American  draft 
make  a  better  showing  than  the  drafted  men  at  large;  but  this 
has  been  complacently  explained  by  saying  that  the  English 
represent  in  comparative  purity  the  Anglo-Saxon  or  Nordic 
stock  which  is  also  the  dominant  strain  among  Americans,  but 
which  has  been  somewhat  contaminated  in  their  case  by  the 
immigration  of  Latins  and  Slavs,  who  rate  much  lower,  as  shown 
by  the  Italians  and  Poles  tested.  Lowest  of  all,  as  might  be 
expected,  is  the  Negro.  So  runs  the  superficial  but  satisfying 


PROBLEMS  OF  RACE 


77 


interpretation  of  the  figures — satisfying  if  one  happens  to  be  of 
North  European  ancestry. 

But  there  is  one  feature  that  raises  suspicion.  The  Italians 
and  the  Poles  are  too  close  to  the  Negroes.  They  stand  much 
nearer  to  them  in  intelligence,  according  to  these  figures,  than 
they  do  to  the  white  Americans.  Can  this  be  so — at  least,  can 
it  have  racial  significance?  Are  these  Mediterraneans,  de¬ 
scendants  of  the  Romans,  and  these  Alpines,  so  large  a  strain  of 
whose  blood  flows  in  the  veins  of  many  white  Americans,  only 
■  a  shade  superior  to  the  Negro?  Scarcely.  “Something  must 
be  wrong  ’  ’  with  the  figures :  that  is,  they  contain  another  factor 
besides  race. 

A  little  dissection  of  the  lump  results  reveals  this  factor. 
The  northern  Negro  far  surpasses  the  southern  in  his  showing. 
He  gets  ten  times  as  high,  a  proportion  of  individuals  into  the 
above-average  grades,  only  half  as  many  into  the  below-average. 
Evidently  the  difference  is  due  to  increased  schooling,  improved 
earning  capacity,  larger  opportunity  and  incentive :  social  en¬ 
vironment,  in  short.  So  strong  is  the  influence  of  the  environ¬ 
ment  that  the  northern  Negro  easily  surpasses  the  Italian  in 
America. 


Negroes,  5  northern 

states, 

4,705  .... 

....  46 

51 

3 

Italians,  4,007  . 

....  63 

36 

1 

Negroes,  4  southern 

states, 

6,846  .  .  .  . 

....  86 

14 

(.3) 

Evidently  the  psychological  tests  are  more  a  gauge  of  educa¬ 
tional  and  social  opportunity  than  of  race,  since  the  Italian, 
although  brunet,  is  of  course  a  pure  Caucasian. 

This  conclusion  is  reinforced  by  another  consideration.  The 
type  of  test  first  used  in  the  army  had  been  built  up  for  rea¬ 
sonably  literate  people,  speaking  English.  Among  such  people 
it  discriminated  successfully  between  the  more  and  the  less  fit. 
But  the  illiterate  and  the  foreigner  knowing  no  English  failed 
completely — not  because  their  intelligence  was  zero,  but  because 
the  test  involved  the  use  of  non-congenital  abilities  which  they 
had  not  acquired.  A  second  set  of  tests,  known  as  Beta,  was 
evolved  for  those  who  were  obviously  ineligible,  or  proved 
themselves  so,  for  the  old  style  of  test,  which  was  designated  as 
Alpha.  The  illiteracy  of  the  subjects  given  the  Beta  test  wras  in 


78 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


most  cases  not  an  absolute  one.  Men  who  could  not  write  an 
intelligible  letter  or  read  the  newspaper  or  who  had  had  only 
half  or  less  of  the  ordinary  grammar  school  education,  together 
with  aliens  whose  comprehension  of  English  remained  imperfect, 
were  put  in  the  group  of  “illiterates”  or  badly  educated.  Sep¬ 
arating  now  the  literates  from  the  illiterates  among  a  number 
of  racial,  national,  or  sectional  groups,  we  find : 


Alpha  Test:  Literates 


Englishmen,  374  . 

.  5 

74 

21 

White  draft  generally,  72,618  .  .  . 

.  16 

69 

15 

Alabama  whites,  697  . 

.  19 

72 

9 

New  York  negroes,  1,021  . 

.  21 

72 

7 

Italians,  575  . 

.  33 

64 

3 

Negroes  generally,  5,681 . 

.  54 

44 

2 

Alabama  negroes,  262  . 

.  56 

44 

(-4) 

Beta  Test: 

Illiterates 

White  draft  generally,  26,012  .  .  . 

.  58 

41 

1 

Italians,  2,888  . 

.  64 

35 

1 

New  York  negroes,  440  . 

.  72 

28 

0 

Poles,  263  . 

.  76 

24 

(-4) 

Alabama  whites,  384  . 

.  80 

20 

0 

Negroes  generally,  11,633  . 

.  91 

9 

(•2) 

Alabama  Negroes,  1,043  . 

.  97 

3 

(.1) 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  two  groups  were  not  set 
apart  as  the  result  of  tests,  but  that  the  two  tests  were  devised 
to  meet  the  problem  of  treating  the  two  groups  with  reasonable 
uniformity.  The  point  was  to  find  the  excellent  man,  and  the 
unfit  man,  with  the  same  degree  of  accuracy  whether  he  was 
literate  or  illiterate.  When  found,  he  was  assigned  to  the  same 
grade,  such  as  A,  or  D  — ,  whether  his  examination  had  been 
Alpha  or  Beta. 

Now  let  us  observe  some  of  the  figures.  The  New  York  negro 
is  nearly  on  a  par  with  the  Alabama  white,  among  literates,  and 
a  bit  ahead  of  him  among  illiterates.  Approximately  the  two 
groups  come  out  the  same;  which  means  that  bringing  up  in  a 
certain  part  of  the  country  has  as  much  to  do  with  intelligence, 
even  in  the  rough,  as  has  Caucasian  or  colored  parentage. 

The  literate  negroes  of  the  draft,  irrespective  of  section, 
slightly  surpass  the  illiterate  whites. 

In  every  case  the  literate  members  of  a  race  or  nationality 
make  a  far  better  showing  than  the  illiterate. 


PROBLEMS  OF  RACE 


79 


It  is  now  clear  also  that  the  important  factor  of  education 
enters  so  heavily  into  the  first  figures  cited  that  they  can  mean 
little  if  anything  as  to  inherent  capacity.  Of  the  Englishmen 
tested,  nine-tenths  fell  in  the  literate  group ;  of  the  Poles,  a  fifth ; 
of  the  Italians,  a  seventh.  In  the  draft  generally,  nearly  three- 
fourths  of  the  whites  were  literate ;  of  the  negroes,  less  than  a 
third. 

In  short,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  Beta  test  was  intended 
to  equalize  conditions  for  the  illiterate  and  semi-illiterate,  the 
outstanding  conclusion  of  the  army  examinations  seems  to  be  that 
education — cultural  advantage — enormously  develops  faculty. 

Is  there  anything  left  that  can  positively  be  assigned  to  race 
causation?  It  may  be  alleged  that  within  the  same  section  the 
white  recruits  regularly  surpass  the  colored.  Alabama  whites 
may  rate  disappointingly,  but  they  do  better  than  Alabama 
negroes;  New  York  negroes  show  surprisingly  well,  but  they 
are  inferior  to  New  York  whites;  illiterate  whites  from  the  whole 
country  definitely  surpass  illiterate  negroes;  and  still  more  so 
among  literates.  But  is  this  residuum  of  difference  surely 
racial?  As  long  as  the  color-line  remains  drawn,  a  differential 
factor  of  cultural  advantage  is  included ;  and  how  strong  this  is 
there  is  no  present  means  of  knowing.  It  is  possible  that  some 
of  the  difference  between  sectionally  and  educationally  equalized 
groups  of  whites  and  negroes  is  really  innate  and  racial.  But 
it  is  also  possible  that  most  or  all  of  it  is  environmental.  Neither 
possibility  can  be  demonstrated  from  the  unrefined  data  at 
present  available. 


43.  Status  of  Hybrids 

In  nearly  all  tests  of  the  American  Negro,  full  bloods  and 
mixed  bloods  are  not  discriminated.  Evidently  if  races  have 
distinctive  endowments,  the  nature  of  these  endowments  is  not 
cleared  up  so  long  as  individuals  who  biologically  are  seven- 
eighths  Caucasian  are  included  with  pure  Negroes  merely  because 
in  this  country  we  have  the  social  habitude  of  reckoning  them  all 
as  ‘  ‘  colored.  ’  ’ 

On  the  other  hand,  an  excellent  opportunity  to  probe  deeper 
is  being  lost  through  the  failure  to  classify  tested  colored  people 


80 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


according  to  the  approximate  proportion  of  Negro  blood.  Sup¬ 
pose  for  instance  that  on  a  given  examination  whites  scored  an 
average  of  100  and  Negroes  of  60.  Then,  if  this  difference  were 
really  due  to  race,  if  it  were  wholly  a  matter  of  superior  or 
inferior  blood,  mulattos  should  average  80  and  quadroons  90 ; 
unless  intelligence  were  due  to  simple  Mendelian  factors,  in 
which  case  its  inheritance  would  tend  to  segregate,  and  of  this 
there  is  no  evidence.  Suppose,  however,  that  instead  of  the 
theoretically  expectable  80  and  90,  the  mulattos  and  quadroons 
scored  65  and  68.  In  that  event  it  would  be  clear  that  the  major 
part  of  the  Negro’s  inferiority  of  record  was  due  to  environ¬ 
ment;  that  the  white  man’s  points  from  about  70  up  to  100  were 
clearly  the  result  of  his  superior  social  opportunities,  whereas 
the  range  between  60  and  70  approximately  represented  the 
innate  difference  between  Negro  and  Caucasian.  This  is  a  hypo¬ 
thetical  example,  but  it  may  serve  to  illustrate  a  possible  method 
of  attacking  the  problem. 

There  are  however  almost  no  data  of  this  kind ;  and  when  they 
are  obtained,  they  will  be  subject  to  certain  cautions  upon  inter¬ 
pretation.  For  instance,  in  the  army  examinations  one  attempt 

was  made  to  separate  a  small  group  of  colored  recruits  into  a 

% 

darker-skinned  group,  comprising  full  blooded  Negroes  and  those 
appearing  to  be  preponderantly  of  Negro  blood;  and  a  lighter 
complexioned  group,  estimated  to  contain  the  mulattos  and  indi¬ 
viduals  in  whom  white  ancestry  was  in  excess.  The  light  group 
made  the  better  scores.  In  the  Alpha  test  for  literates  it  at¬ 
tained  a  median  score  of  50,  the  dark  Negroes  only  30;  in  the 
Beta  tests  for  illiterates,  the  respective  figures  were  36  and  29. 

The  caution  is  this.  Is  the  mulatto  subject  to  any  more  advan¬ 
tageous  environment  than  the  full  blooded  Negro?  So  far  as 
voting  and  office-holding,  riding  in  Pullman  cars  and  occupying 
orchestra  seats  in  theatre  are  concerned,  there  is  no  difference: 
both  are  colored,  and  therefore  beyond  the  barrier.  But  the 
mulattos  of  slavery  days  were  likely  to  be  house  servants, 
brought  up  with  the  master’s  family,  absorbing  manners,  in¬ 
formation,  perhaps  education ;  their  black  half-brothers  and  half- 
sisters  stayed  out  in  the  plantation  shacks.  Several  generations 
have  elapsed  since  those  days,  but  it  is  possible,  even  probable, 
that  the  descendants  of  mulattos  have  kept  a  step  or  two  ahead 


PROBLEMS  OF  RACE  81 

of  the  descendants  of  the  blacks  in  literacy,  range  of  experience, 
and  the  like. 

It  is  impossible  to  predict  what  the  social  effect  of  miscegena¬ 
tion  will  be.  The  effect  undoubtedly  varies  and  must  be  exam¬ 
ined  in  each  case.  Thus,  Indian  half-breeds  in  one  tribe  may 
usually  be  the  result  of  wholly  transient  or  mercenary  unions 
between  inferior  whites  and  debauched  native  women  and  may 
therefore  grow  up  in  an  atmosphere  of  demoralization  to  which 
the  full  blooded  Indian  is  less  exposed.  This  demoralization 
would,  to  be  sure,  affect  character  and  not  intelligence  as  such ; 
but  it  might  stand  in  the  way  of  schooling,  and  otherwise  indi¬ 
rectly  react  on  measurable  traits  of  mind.  In  another  tribe  or 
section  of  a  tribe,  to  the  contrary,  the  half-breed  might  nor¬ 
mally  grow  up  in  the  house  of  a  permanently  settled  white 
father,  a  squaw  man,  and  in  that  event  would  learn  English 
better,  go  to  school  earlier,  and  in  case  of  a  test  therefore 
achieve  a  higher  rating  than  the  full  blood. 

4 

44.  Evidence  from  the  Cultural  Record  of  Races 

An  entirely  different  method  of  approach  to  the  problem  of 
race  capacity  is  that  of  examining  the  cultural  record,  the 
achievements  in  civilization,  of  groups.  While  this  approach  is 
theoretically  possible,  and  while  it  is  often  attempted,  it  is  sub¬ 
ject  to  little  control  and  therefore  unlikely  to  yield  dependable 
conclusions. 

First  of  all,  the  culture  history  record  of  a  people  must  be 
known  for  considerable  periods  before  one  may  validly  think  of 
inferring  therefrom  anything  as  to  the  faculties  of  that  people. 
The  reason  is  that  active  civilization,  as  a  productive  process,  is 
slow  to  grow  up,  slow  to  be  acquired.  Mere  momentum  would 
normally  keep  the  more  advanced  of  two  peoples  ahead  of  the 
other  for  a  long  time.  In  proportion  as  not  nations  but  groups 
of  nations  were  involved,  the  momentum  would  continue  for 
still  longer  periods.  Civilization  flourished  for  some  thousands 
of  years  in  the  Near  East,  and  then  about  the  Mediterranean, 
before  it  became  established  with  equal  vigor  and  success  in 
northern  Europe.  Had  Julius  Caesar  or  one  of  his  contem¬ 
poraries  been  asked  whether  by  any  sane  stretch  of  phantasy 


82 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


he  could  imagine  the  Britons  and  Germans  as  inherently  the 
equals  of  Romans  and  Greeks,  he  would  probably  have  replied 
that  if  these  northerners  possessed  the  ability  of  the  Mediter¬ 
raneans  they  would  long  since  have  given  vent  to  it,  instead  of 
continuing  to  live  in  disorganization,  poverty,  ignorance,  rude¬ 
ness,  and  without  great  men  or  products  of  the  spirit.  And, 
within  limits,  Cassar  would  have  been  right,  since  it  was  more 
than  a  thousand  years  before  northern  Europe  began  to  draw 
abreast  of  Italy  in  degree  and  productivity  of  civilization.  Two 
thousand  years  before  Christ,  a  well  informed  Egyptian  might 
reasonably  have  disposed  in  the  same  sweeping  way  of  the  possi¬ 
bility  of  Greeks  and  Italians  being  the  equals  of  his  own  people  in 
capacity.  What  had  these  barbarians  ever  done  to  lead  one  to 
think  that  they  might  yet  do  great  things?  To-day  we  brush 
Negroes  and  Indians  out  of  the  reckoning  with  the  same  off¬ 
handedness. 

In  general,  arguing  from  performance  to  potentiality,  from 
accomplishment  to  achievement,  is  valid  under  conditions  of  set 
experiment — such  as  are  impossible  for  races — or  in  proportion 
as  the  number  and  variety  of  observations  is  large.  A  single 
matched  competition  may  decide  pretty  reliably  as  between  the 
respective  speed  capacities  of  two  runners.  But  it  would  be 
hazardous  to  form  an  opinion  from,  a  casual  glimpse  of  them  in 
action,  when  one  might  happen  to  be  hastening  and  the  other 
dallying.  Least  of  all  would  it  be  sound  to  infer  that  essential 
superiority  rested  with  the  one  that  was  in  advance  at  the  mo¬ 
ment  of  observation,  without  knowledge  of  their  starting  points, 
the  difficulty  of  their  routes,  the  motive  or  goal  of  their  courses. 
It  is  only  as  the  number  of  circumstances  grows,  from  which 
observations  are  available,  that  judgment  begins  to  have  any 
weight.  The  runner  who  has  led  for  a  long  time  and  is  increas¬ 
ing  his  lead,  or  who  has  repeatedly  passed  others,  or  who  carries 
a  load  and  yet  gains  ground,  may  lay  some  claim  to  superiority. 
In  the  same  way,  as  between  races,  a  long  and  intimate  historical 
record,  objectively  analyzed,  gives  some  legitimate  basis  for 
tentative  conclusions  as  to  their  natural  endowment.  But  how 
long  the  record  must  be  is  suggested  by  the  example  already 
cited  of  Mediterranean  versus  Nordic  cultural  preeminence. 

The  fallacy  that  is  most  commonly  committed  is  to  argue  from 


PROBLEMS  OF  RACE 


83 


what  in  the  history  of  great  groups  is  only  an  instant :  this 
instant  being  that  at  which  one’s  own  race  or  nationality  is 
dominant.  The  Anglo-Saxon’s  moment  is  the  present;  the 
Greek’s,  the  age  of  Pericles.  Usually,  too,  the  dominance  holds 
only  for  certain  aspects :  military  or  economic  or  aesthetic  su¬ 
periority,  as  the  case  may  be ;  inferiorities  on  other  sides  are 
merely  overlooked.  The  Greek  knew  his  venality,  but  looked 
down  on  the  barbarian  nevertheless.  Anglo-Saxon  failure  in 
the  plastic  and  musical  arts  is  notorious,  but  does  not  deter 
most  Anglo-Saxons  from  believing  that  they  are  the  elect  in 
quality,  and  from  buttressing  this  conviction  with  the  evidences 
of  present  industrial,  economic,  and  political  achievements — and 
perhaps  past  literary  ones. 

45.  Emotional  Bias 

Inference  from  record  to  potentiality  where  the  record  of 
one ’s  own  group  is  favorable,  and  failure  to  draw  such  inference 
where  the  achievement  of  other  groups  is  superior,  is  a  combina¬ 
tion  of  mental  operations  that  is  widely  spread  because  it  arises 
spontaneously  in  minds  not  critically  trained.  Here  is  an  in¬ 
stance  : 

One  of  the  great  achievements  of  science  in  the  nineteenth 
century  was  Galton’s  demonstration,  in  a  series  of  works  begin¬ 
ning  with  ‘  ‘  Hereditary  Genius,  ’  ’  that  the  laws  of  heredity  apply 
to  the  mind  in  the  same  manner  and  to  the  same  degree  as  to 
the  body.  On  the  whole  this  proof  has  failed  to  be  recognized 
at  its  true  importance,  probably  because  it  inclines  adversely  to 
current  presuppositions  of  the  independence  of  the  soul  from 
the  body,  and  freedom  of  the  will,  propositions  to  which  most 
men  adhere  emotionally. 

From  this  perfectly  valid  demonstration,  which  has  been  con¬ 
firmed  by  other  methods,  Galton  went  on  to  rate  the  hereditary 
worth  of  various  races,  according  to  the  number  of  their  men  of 
genius.  Here  a  fallacy  enters :  the  assumption  that  all  geniuses 
born  are  recognized  as  such.  A  great  work  naturally  requires  a 
great  man,  but  it  presupposes  also  a  great  culture.  It  may  be 
that,  historically  speaking,  a  great  genius  cannot  arise  in  a  primi¬ 
tive  degree  of  civilization.  That  is,  the  kind  of  concentrated 


84 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


accomplishment  which  alone  we  recognize  as  a  work  of  genius 
is  culturally  impossible  below  a  certain  level.  Biologically  the 
individual  of  genius  may  be  there;  civilizationally  he  is  not 
called  forth,  and  so  does  not  get  into  the  record.  Consequently 
it  is  unsound  to  argue  from  the  historical  record  to  biological 
worth.  However,  this  Galton  did ;  and  his  method  led  him  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  negro  rates  two  grades  lower  than  the  Eng¬ 
lishman,  on  a  total  scale  of  fourteen  grades,  and  the  Englishman 
two  lower  than  the  fifth  century  Athenian. 

This  conclusion  has  never  been  popular.  Most  people  on 
becoming  familiar  with  Galton ’s  argument,  resist  it.  Its  fallacy 
is  not  easy  to  perceive — if  it  were,  Galton  would  not  have  com¬ 
mitted  it — and  the  average  person  is  habitually  so  vague-minded 
upon  what  is  organic  and  what  is  social,  that  the  determination 
of  the  fallacy  would  be  well  beyond  him.  His  opposition  to 
Galton ’s  conclusion  is  therefore  emotionally  and  not  rationally 
founded,  and  his  arguments  against  the  conclusion  are  presuma¬ 
bly  also  called  forth  by  emotional  stimulus. 

On  the  other  hand,  most  individuals  of  this  day  and  land  do 
habitually  infer,  like  Galton,  from  cultural  status  to  biological 
worth,  so  far  as  the  Negro  is  concerned.  The  same  persons  who 
eagerly  accept  the  demonstration  of  a  flaw  in  the  argument  in 
favor  of  Athenian  superiority,  generally  become  skeptical  and 
resistive  to  the  exposition  of  the  same  flaw  in  the  current  belief 
as  to  Negro  inferiority.  It  is  remarkable  how  frequently  and 
how  soon,  in  making  this  exposition,  one  becomes  aware  of  the 
hearer’s  feeling  that  one’s  attitude  is  sophistical,  unreal,  insin¬ 
cere,  or  motivated  by  something  concealed. 

The  drift  of  this  discussion  may  seem  to  be  an  unavowed  argu¬ 
ment  in  favor  of  race  equality.  It  is  not  that  (§271).  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  bodily  differences  between  races  would  ap¬ 
pear  to  render  it  in  the  highest  degree  likely  that  corresponding 
congenital  mental  differences  do  exist.  These  differences  might 
not  be  profound,  compared  with  the  sum  total  of  common  human 
faculties,  much  as  the  physical  variations  of  mankind  fall  within 
the  limits  of  a  single  species.  Yet  they  would  preclude  identity. 
As  for  the  vexed  question  of  superiority,  lack  of  identity  would 
involve  at  least  some  degree  of  greater  power  in  certain  respects 
in  some  races.  These  preeminences  might  be  rather  evenly  dis- 


PROBLEMS  OF  RACE 


85 


tributed,  so  that  no  one  race  would  notably  excel  the  others  in  the 
sum  total  or  average  of  its  capacities;  or  they  might  show  a 
tendency  to  cluster  on  one  rather  than  on  another  race.  In 
either  event,  however,  the  fact  of  race  difference,  qualitative  if 
not  quantitative,  would  remain. 

But  it  is  one  thing  to  admit  this  theoretical  probability  and 
then  stop  through  ignorance  of  what  the  differences  are,  and 
another  to  construe  the  admission  as  justification  of  mental  atti¬ 
tudes  which  may  be  well  founded  emotionally  but  are  in  con¬ 
siderable  measure  unfounded  objectively. 

In  short,  it  is  a  difficult  task  to  establish  any  race  as  either 
superior  or  inferior  to  another,  but  relatively  easy  to  prove 
that  we  entertain  a  strong  prejudice  in  favor  of  our  own  racial 
superiority. 


46.  Summary 

It  would  seem  that  the  subject  of  race  problems,  that  is,  the 
natural  endowment  of  human  races,  can  be  summarized  as  fol¬ 
lows  : 

The  essential  difficulty  of  these  problems  lies  in  the  fact  that 
the  performance  of  groups  is  the  product  of  two  sets  of  factors, 
biological  and  cultural,  both  of  which  are  variable  and  not 
always  readily  separable. 

Progress  in  solution  of  the  problems  will  be  made  gradually, 
and  will  be  hastened  by  recognition  of  how  few  positive  deter¬ 
minations  have  been  made. 

Most  of  the  alleged  existing  evidence  on  race  endowment  is 
likely  to  be  worthless. 

The  remainder  probably  has  some  value,  but  to  what  degree, 
and  what  it  demonstrates,  cannot  yet  be  asserted. 

The  most  definite  determinations  promise  to  eventuate  from 
experiment.  If  fully  controlled  experiments  in  breeding  and 
rearing  human  beings  could  be  carried  out,  the  problems  would 
soon  begin  to  solve.  Experiments  on  animals  would  prove  prac¬ 
tically  nothing  because  animals  are  cultureless — uninfluenced  by 
social  environment  of  their  own  making. 

Progress  will  be  aided  by  increasing  shift  of  attention  from 
the  crude  consideration  of  comparative  lump  rating  of  the  races, 


86 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


that  is,  their  gross  superiority  or  inferiority,  to  a  consideration  of 
such  specific  qualitative  differences  as  they  may  prove  to  show. 
The  question  of  finding  the  race  in  which  the  greatest  number 
of  qualitative  excellences  are  concentrated  is  subsequent  and  of 
much  less  scientific  importance. 

Scientific  inquiries  into  race  are  for  the  present  best  kept  apart 
from  so-called  actual  race  problems.  These  problems  inevitably 
involve  feeling,  usually  of  considerable  strength,  which  tends 
to  vitiate  objective  approach.  On  the  other  hand,  the  practical 
problems  will  no  doubt  continue  to  be  met  practically,  that  is, 
morally  and  emotionally.  Whether  the  Japanese  should  be  for¬ 
bidden  to  hold  land  and  the  Negro  be  legally  disfranchised  are 
problems  of  economics  and  of  group  ethics,  which  probably  will 
for  a  long  time  be  disposed  of  emotionally  as  at  present,  irre¬ 
spective  of  the  possible  findings  of  science  upon  the  innate  en¬ 
dowment  of  Caucasian,  Mongoloid,  and  Negroid  strains. 


CHAPTER  Y 


LANGUAGE 

47.  Linguistic  relationship:  the  speech  family. — 48.  Criteria  of  rela¬ 
tionship. — 49.  Sound  equivalences  and  phonetic  laws. — 50.  The  principal 
speech  families. — 51.  Classification  of  languages  by  types. — 52.  Perma¬ 
nence  of  language  and  race.— 53.  The  biological  and  historical  nature  of 
language. — 54.  Problems  of  the  relation  of  language  and  culture. — 55. 
Period  of  the  origin  of  language. — 56.  Culture,  speech,  and  nationality. — 
57.  Relative  worth  of  languages. — 58.  Size  of  vocabulary. — 59.  Quality 
of  speech  sounds. — 60.  Diffusion  and  parallelism  in  language  and  culture. 
— 61.  Convergent  languages. — 62.  Unconscious  factors  in  language  and 
culture. — 63.  Linguistic  and  cultural  standards. — 64.  Rapidity  of  lin¬ 
guistic  change. 

47.  Linguistic  Relationship:  The  Speech  Family 

The  question  that  the  historian  and  anthropologist  are  likely 
to  ask  most  frequently  of  the  philologist,  is  whether  this  and 
that  language  are  or  are  not  related.  Relationship  in  such  con¬ 
nection  means  descent  from  a  common  source,  as  two  brothers 
are  descended  from  the  same  father,  or  two  cousins  from  a 
common  grandfather.  If  languages  can  be  demonstrated  to 
possess  such  common  source,  it  is  clear  that  the  peoples  who 
spoke  them  must  at  one  time  have  been  in  close  contact,  or  per¬ 
haps  have  constituted  a  single  people.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  languages  of  two  peoples  prove  wholly  dissimilar,  though 
their  racial  types  and  cultures  be  virtually  identical,  as  indeed 
is  sometimes  found  to  be  the  case — witness  the  Hungarians  and 
their  neighbors — it  is  evident  that  an  element  of  discontinuous 
development  must  somewhere  be  reckoned  with.  Perhaps  one 
part  of  an  originally  single  racial  group  gradually  modified  its 
speech  beyond  recognition,  or  under  the  shock  of  conquest,  migra¬ 
tion,  or  other  historical  accident  entirely  discarded  it  in  favor 
of  a  new  and  foreign  tongue.  Or  the  opposite  may  be  true :  the 
two  groups  were  originally  distinct  in  all  respects,  but,  being 
brought  in  contact,  their  cultures  interpenetrated,  intermarriage 
followed,  and  the  two  physical  types  became  assimilated  into 

87 


88 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


one  while  the  languages  remained  dissimilar.  In  short,  if  one 
wishes  full  understanding  of  a  people,  one  must  take  its  language 
into  consideration.  This  means  that  it  must  be  classified.  If  a 
historical  classification  is  to  be  more  than  barrenly  logical,  it 
must  have  reference  to  relationship,  development,  origin.  In 
a  word,  it  must  be  a  genetic  classification. 

The  term  used  to  indicate  that  two  or  more  languages  have  a 
common  source  but  are  unrelated  to  all  others,  or  seem  so  in  the 
present  state  of  knowledge,  is  ‘ 'linguistic  family.”  “ Linguistic 
stock”  is  frequently  used  as  a  synonym.  This  is  the  fundamental 
concept  in  the  classification  of  languages.  Without  a  clear  idea 
of  its  meaning  one  involves  himself  in  confusion  on  attempting 
to  use  philology  as  an  aid  to  other  branches  of  human  history. 

There  is  no  abstract  reason  against  referring  to  a  group  of 
unrelated  languages  as  a  “family”  because  they  are  all  spoken 
in  one  area,  nor  against  denominating  as  “families,”  as  has 
sometimes  been  done,  the  major  subdivisions  of  a  group  of  lan¬ 
guages  admittedly  of  common  origin.  Again,  languages  that 
show  certain  similarities  of  type  or  structure,  such  as  inflection, 
might  conceivably  be  put  into  one  4  ‘  family.  ’ 1  But  there  is  this 
objection  to  all  such  usages:  they  do  not  commit  themselves  on 
the  point  of  genetic  relationship,  or  they  contradict  it,  or  only 
partially  exhaust  it.  Yet  commonness  of  origin  is  so  important 
in  many  connections  that  it  is  indispensable  to  have  one  term 
which  denotes  its  ascertainable  presence.  And  for  this  quality 
there  happens  to  be  no  generally  understood  designation  other 
than  “linguistic  family,”  or  its  synonym,  “linguistic  stock.” 
This  phrase  will  therefore  be  used  here  strictly  in  the  sense  of 
the  whole  of  a  group  of  languages  sprung  from  a  single  source, 
and  only  in  that  sense.  Other  groupings  will  be  indicated  by 
phrases  like  “languages  of  such  and  such  an  area,”  “sub¬ 
family,  ”  “  division  of  a  family,  ”  or  “  languages  of  similar  type.  ’  ’ 

48.  Criteria  of  Relationship 

The  question  that  first  arises  in  regard  to  linguistic  families 
is  how  the  relationship  of  their  constituent  idioms  is  determined. 
In  brief,  the  method  is  one  of  comparison.  If  a  considerable 
proportion  of  the  words  and  grammatical  forms  of  two  languages 


LANGUAGE 


89 


are  reasonably  similar,  similar  enough  to  indicate  that  the  re¬ 
semblances  cannot  be  due  to  mere  accident,  these  similar  words 
and  forms  must  go  back  to  a  common  source,  and  if  this  source 
is  hot  borrowing,  the  two  tongues  are  related.  If  comparison 
fails  to  bring  out  any  such  degree  of  resemblance,  the  languages 
are  classed  in  distinct  families. 

Of  course  it  is  possible  that  the  reason  two  languages  seem 
unrelated  is  not  that  they  are  really  so,  but  that  they  have  in 
the  lapse  of  ages  become  so  much  differentiated  that  one  cannot 
any  longer  find  resemblance  between  their  forms.  In  that  event 
true  relationship  would  be  obscured  by  its  remoteness.  Theo¬ 
retically  there  is  high  probability  that  many  families  of  lan¬ 
guages,  customarily  regarded  as  totally  distinct,  do  go  back  in 
the  far  past  to  a  common  origin,  and  that  ignorance  of  their 
history,  or  inability  to  analyze  them  deeply,  prevents  recogni¬ 
tion  of  their  relationship.  From  time  to  time  it  happens  that 
groups  of  languages  which  at  first  seemed  unrelated  are  shown 
by  more  intensive  study  to  possess  elements  enough  in  common 
to  compel  the  recognition  of  their  original  unity.  In  that  case 
what  were  supposed  to  be  several  “families”  become  merged  in 
one.  The  scope  of  a  particular  family  may  be  thus  enlarged; 
but  the  scope  of  the  generic  concept  of  “family”  is  not  altered. 

Whether  there  is  any  hope  that  comparative  philology  may 
ultimately  be  prosecuted  with  sufficient  success  to  lead  all  the 
varied  forms  of  human  speech  back  to  a  single  origin,  is  an 
interesting  speculation.  A  fair  statement  is  that  such  a  possi¬ 
bility  cannot  be  denied,  but  that  the  science  is  still  far  from 
such  a  realization,  and  that  progress  toward  it  is  necessarily 
slow.  Of  more  immediate  concern  is  an  ordering  and  summariz¬ 
ing  of  the  knowledge  in  hand  with  a  view  to  such  positive  infer¬ 
ences  as  can  be  drawn. 

In  an  estimate  of  the  similarity  of  languages,  words  that 
count  as  evidence  must  meet  two  requirements :  they  must  be 
alike  or  traceably  similar  in  sound;  and  they  must  be  alike  or 
similar  in  meaning.  This  double  requirement  holds,  whether  full 
words  or  separable  parts  of  words,  roots  or  grammatical  forms,  are 
compared.  The  English  word  eel  and  the  French  tie,  meaning 
island,  are  pronounced  almost  exactly  alike,  yet  their  meaning 
is  so  different  that  no  sane  person  would  regard  them  as  sprung 


90 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


from  the  same  origin.  As  a  matter  of  fact  ile  is  derived  from 
Latin  insula,  whereas  eel  has  a  cognate  in  German  aal.  These 
prototypes  insula  and  aal  being  as  different  in  sound  as  they  are 
in  meaning,  any  possibility  that  eel  and  ile  might  be  related  is 
easily  disposed  of.  Yet  if  the  Latin  and  German  equivalents 
were  lost,  if  nothing  were  known  of  the  history  of  the  English 
and  French  languages,  and  if  ile  meant  not  island  but,  say, 
fish  or  watersnake,  then  it  might  be  reasonable  to  think  of  a 
connection. 

Such  doubtful  cases,  of  which  a  certain  proportion  are  likely 
to  be  adjudged  wrongly,  are  bound  to  come  up  in  regard  to 
the  less  investigated  languages,  particularly  those  of  nations 
without  writing,  the  earlier  stages  of  whose  speech  have  perished 
without  trace.  In  proportion  as  more  is  known  of  a  language, 
or  as  careful  analysis  can  reconstruct  more  of  its  past  stages, 
the  number  of  such  borderline  cases  obviously  becomes  fewer. 

Before  genetic  connection  between  two  languages  can  be 
thought  of,  the  number  of  their  words  similar  in  sound  and 
sense  must  be  reasonably  large.  An  isolated  handful  of  resem¬ 
blances  obviously  are  either  importations — loan  words — or  the 
result  of  coincidence.  Thus  in  the  native  Californian  language 
known  as  Yuki,  ko  means  go,  and  kom  means  come.  Yet  exami¬ 
nation  of  Yuki  reveals  no  further  instances  of  the  same  kind. 
It  would  therefore  be  absurd  to  dream  of  a  connection:  one 
swallow  does  not  make  a  summer.  This  lone  pair  of  resem¬ 
blances  means  nothing  except  that  the  mathematical  law  of 
probability  has  operated.  Among  the  thousands  of  words  in  one 
language,  a  number  are  likely  to  be  similar  in  sound  to  words 
of  another  language ;  and  of  this  number  again  a  small  fraction, 
perhaps  one  or  two  or  five  in  all,  will  happen  to  bear  some  re¬ 
semblance  in  meaning  also.  In  short,  the  similarities  upon  which 
a  verdict  of  genetic  relationship  is  based  must  be  sufficiently 
numerous  to  fall  well  beyond  possibility  of  mere  coincidence ; 
and  it  must  also  be  possible  to  prove  with  reasonable  certainty 
that  they  are  not  the  result  of  one  language  borrowing  words 
from  another,  as,  for  instance,  English  borrowed  from  French 
and  Latin. 

At  the  same  time  it  is  not  necessary  that  the  similarities 
extend  to  the  point  of  identity.  In  fact,  too  close  a  resemblance 


LANGUAGE 


91 


between  part  of  the  stock  of  two  languages  immediately  raises 
a  presumption  of  borrowing.  For  every  language  is  continually 
changing,  and  once  a  mother  tongue  has  split  into  several 
branches,  each  of  these  goes  on  modifying  its  sounds,  and  gradu¬ 
ally  shifting  the  meaning  of  its  words,  generation  after  genera¬ 
tion.  In  short,  where  connection  is  real,  it  must  be  veiled  by 
a  certain  degree  of  distortion. 

Take  the  English  word  foot  and  the  Latin  word  of  the  same 
meaning,  pes.  To  offhand  inspection  the  sounds  or  forms  of  the 
two  words  do  not  seem  similar.  The  resemblance  becomes  more 
definite  in  other  forms  of  pes,  for  instance  the  genitive  case 
ped-is  or  the  accusative  ped-em.  Obviously  the  stem  or  elemen¬ 
tary  portion  of  the  Latin  word  is  not  pes  but  ped-;  and  the 
d  is  closer  to  the  English  t  of  foot  than  is  the  s  of  pes.  The 
probability  of  relationship  is  increased  by  the  Greek  word  for 
foot,  pous,  whose  stem  proves  to  be  pod-,  with  vowel  closer  to 
that  of  English.  Meanwhile,  it  would  be  recognized  that  there 
are  English  words  beginning  with  ped-,  such  as  pedal,  pedes¬ 
trian,  pedestal,  all  of  which  have  a  clear  association  with  the 
idea  of  foot.  All  these  words  however  possess  almost  exact 
equivalents  in  Latin.  One  would  therefore  be  justified  in  con¬ 
cluding  from  these  facts  what  indeed  the  history  of  the  lan¬ 
guages  proves,  namely,  that  pedal,  pedestrian,  and  pedestal  are 
Latin  words  taken  over  into  English;  whereas  foot  and  pes  and 
pous,  and  for  that  matter  German  fuss,  are  derivatives  from  a 
common  form  which  once  existed  in  the  now  extinct  mother 
tongue  from  which  Greek  and  Latin  and  English  and  German 
are  derived. 

49.  Sound  Equivalences  and  Phonetic  Laws 

The  question  next  arises  whether  it  is  possible  to  account  for 
the  distortions  which  have  modified  the  original  word  into  foot, 
ped-,  etc.  What  has  caused  the  initial  sound  of  this  ancient 
word  to  become  p  in  Latin  and  /  in  English,  and  its  last  con¬ 
sonant  to  be  d  in  Latin  and  Greek,  t  in  English,  and  ss  in  Ger¬ 
man  ?  To  answer  this  seemingly  innocent  question  with  accuracy 
for  this  one  word  alone  would  involve  a  treatise  on  the  whole 
group  of  languages  in  question,  and  even  then  the  causes,  as 


92 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


causes,  could  scarcely  be  set  down  with  certainty.  But  it  has 
proved  possible  to  assemble  a  large  number  of  instances  of 
parallel  distortion  in  which  Latin  p  corresponds  to  English  /, 
or  d  to  t.  Evidently  philology  has  got  hold  of  a  generalized 
phenomenon  here.  Since  father  corresponds  to  pater ,  full  to 
pl-enus,  for  to  pro,  fish  to  piscis,  and  so  on  in  case  after  case, 
we  are  evidently  face  to  face  with  a  happening  that  has  occurred 
with  regularity  and  to  which  the  name  “law”  is  therefore 
applicable. 

The  f  of  foot  and  p  of  pes  are  both  lip  sounds.  They  differ 
preeminently  in  that  /  can  be  prolonged  indefinitely,  whereas  p 
is  a  momentary  sound.  It  is  produced  by  closure  of  the  lips 
for  a  fraction  of  a  second  during  which  there  is  an  interruption 
of  sound  production,  followed  by  a  somewhat  explosive  release 
of  the  breath  which  has  been  impounded  in  the  mouth  cavity. 
This  explosion  is  of  necessity  instantaneous.  Since  it  is  preceded 
by  occlusion,  or  stoppage  of  the  breath,  it  is  customary  to  speak 
of  sounds  produced  by  a  process  like  p  as  “stops.”  F,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  a  “continuant,”  or  more  specifically  a  “fricative.” 

The  English  word  three  begins  with  a  sound  which,  although 
conventionally  represented  by  the  two  letters  th,  is  a  simple 
sound  and  in  a  class  with  /  in  being  fricative.  Th  is  formed  by 
putting  the  tongue  lightly  across  the  teeth,  just  as  f  is  made  by 
placing  the  lower  lip  against  the  edge  of  the  upper  teeth.  In 
both  cases  the  breath  is  expelled  with  friction  through  a  narrow 
passage.  Now  if  the  fricative  /  is  represented  in  Latin  by  the 
stop  p,  then,  if  regularity  holds  good,  the  English  fricative  th 
ought  to  be  represented  in  Latin  by  the  stop  sound  in  the  cor¬ 
responding  dental  position,  namely  t.  The  Latin  w^ord  for  three 
is  in  fact  tros ;  for  thin,  ten-uis ;  for  mother ,  mater ;  for  thou, 
tu,  and  so  on.  The  regularity  therefore  extends  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  single  labial  class  of  sounds,  and  applies  with  equal 
force  to  the  dentals;  and,  it  may  be  added,  to  the  palatals  or 
gutturals  as  well. 

As  one  passes  from  English  and  Latin  to  German,  one  finds 
the  initial  sound  of  the  word  meaning  three,  drei,  to  be  some¬ 
what  different  from  th  and  t  but  still  clearly  allied,  since  it  also 
is  made  by  the  tongue  against  the  teeth.  D  is  a  stop  like  t,  but 
the  vocal  cords  vibrate  while  it  is  being  pronounced,  whereas  in 


LANGUAGE 


93 


t  the  vocal  cords  are  silent.  D  is  “voiced”  or  “sonant,”  t 
“unvoiced”  or  “surd.”  Hence  the  formulation:  Latin,  surd 
stop ;  German,  sonant  stop ;  English,  fricative.  This  triple 
equivalence  can  be  substantiated  in  other  words.  For  instance, 
ten-uis,  diinn,  thin;  tu,  du,  thou . 

If  it  is  the  English  word  that  contains  a  surd  stop,  what  will 
be  the  equivalent  in  Latin  and  German?  Compare  ten ,  Latin 
decern ,  German  zehn.  Again  the  three  classes  of  sounds  run 
parallel ;  but  the  place  of  their  appearance  in  the  three  languages 
has  shifted. 

The  third  possible  placing  of  the  three  sounds  in  the  three 
languages  is  when  English  has  the  sonant  stop,  d.  By  exclusion 
it  might  be  predicted  that  Latin  should  then  show  the  fricative 
th  and  German  the  surd  stop  t.  The  word  daughter  confirms. 
The  German  is  tochter.  Latin  in  this  case  fails  us,  the  original 
corresponding  stem  having  gone  out  of  use  and  been  replaced 
by  the  word  filia.  But  Greek,  whose  sounds  align  with  those  of 
Latin  as  opposed  to  English  and  German,  provides  the  th  as 
expected :  thygater.  Compare  death,  tod,  thanatos. 

Let  us  bring  together  these  results  so  that  the  eye  may  grasp 
them : 


Latin,  Greek  . surd  stop  sonant  stop  fricative 

German . sonant  stop  fricative  surd  stop 

English  . fricative  surd  stop  sonant  stop 

Latin,  Greek  . tres  duo  thygater 

German . drei  zwei  tochter 

English . three  two  daughter 

\ 


These  relations  apply  not  only  to  the  dentals  d,  t,  th  (z),  which 
have  been  chosen  for  illustration,  but  also  to  the  labials,  p,  b,  f, 
and  to  the  palatals  k,  g,  li  ( gh ,  ch). 

It  is  evident  that  most  of  the  sounds  occur  in  all  three  groups 
of  languages,  but  not  in  the  same  words.  The  sound  t  is  common 
to  English,  Latin,  and  German,  but  when  it  appears  in  a  par¬ 
ticular  word  in  one  of  these  languages  it  is  replaced  by  d  and 
th  in  the  two  others.  This  replacing  is  known  as  a  “sound 
shift.”  The  sound  shifts  just  enumerated  constitute  the  famous 
Grimm’s  Law.  This  was  the  first  discovered  important  phonetic 
law  or  system  of  sound  substitutions.  Yet  it  is  only  one  of  a 
number  of  shifts  that  have  been  worked  out  for  the  Indo- 


94 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


European  group  of  languages  to  which  English,  German,  and 
Latin  belong.  So  far,  only  stopped  and  fricative  consonants 
have  been  reviewed  here,  and  no  vowels  have  been  considered. 
Other  groups  of  languages  also  show  shifts,  but  often  different 
ones,  as  between  l  and  n,  or  s  and  k,  or  p  and  k. 

The  significance  of  a  shift  lies  in  the  fact  that  its  regularity 
cannot  be  explained  on  any  other  ground  than  that  the  words  in 
which  the  law  is  operative  must  originally  have  been  the  same. 
That  is,  Latin  duo,  German  zwei,  English  two  are  all  only 
variants  of  a  word  which  meant  “two”  in  the  mother  tongue 
from  which  these  three  languages  are  descended.  This  example 
alone  is  of  course  insufficient  evidence  for  the  existence  of  such 
a  common  mother  tongue.  But  that  each  of  the  shifts  discussed 
is  substantiated  by  hundreds  or  thousands  of  words  in  which  it 
holds  true,  puts  the  shift  beyond  the  possibility  of  mere  acci¬ 
dent.  The  explanation  of  coincidence  is  ruled  out.  The  resem¬ 
blances  therefore  are  both  genuine  and  genetic.  The  conclusion 
becomes  inevitable  that  the  languages  thus  linked  are  later  modi¬ 
fications  of  a  former  single  speech. 

It  is  in  this  way  that  linguistic  relationship  is  determined. 
Where  an  ancient  sound  shift,  a  law  of  phonetic  change,  can  be 
established  by  a  sufficient  number  of  cases,  argument  ceases.  It 
is  true  that  when  most  of  a  language  has  perished,  or  when  an 
unwritten  language  has  been  but  fragmentarily  recorded  or  its 
analysis  not  carried  far,  a  strong  presumption  of  genetic  unity 
may  crowd  in  on  the  investigator  who  is  not  yet  in  a  position 
to  present  the  evidence  of  laws.  The  indications  may  be  strong 
enough  to  warrant  a  tentative  assumption  of  relationship.  But 
the  final  test  is  always  the  establishment  of  laws  of  sound  equiva¬ 
lence  that  hold  good  with  predominating  regularity. 

50.  The  Principal  Speech  Families 

The  number  of  linguistic  families  is  not  a  matter  of  much 
theoretical  import.  From  what  has  already  been  said  it  appears 
that  the  number  can  perhaps  never  be  determined  with  absolute 
accuracy.  As  knowledge  accumulates  and  dissection  is  carried 
to  greater  refinements,  new  phonetic  laws  will  uncover  and  serve 
to  unite  what  now  seem  to  be  separate  stocks.  Yet  for  the  prac- 


( 


i 


LANGUAGE 


95 


tical  purpose  of  classification  and  tracing  relationship  the  lin¬ 
guistic  family  will  remain  a  valuable  tool.  A  rapid  survey  of 
the  principal  families  is  therefore  worth  while. 

In  Asia  and  Europe,  which  must  be  considered  a  unit  in  this 
connection,  the  number  of  stocks,  according  to  conservative  reck¬ 
oning,  does  not  exceed  twenty-five.  The  most  important  of  these, 
in  point  of  number  of  speakers,  is  the  Indo-European  or  Indo- 
Germanic  or  Aryan  family,  whose  territory  for  several  thousand 
years  has  comprised  southwestern  Asia  and  the  greater  part,  but 
by  no  means  all,  of  Europe.  The  most  populous  branches  of  the 
Indo-European  family  are  the  Indie,  Slavic,  Germanic,  and  Ro¬ 
mance  or  Latin.  Others  are  Persian  or  Iranic,  Armenian,  Greek, 
Albanian,  Baltic  or  Lithuanian,  and  Keltic.  Prom  Europe 
various  Indo-European  languages,  such  as  English,  Spanish, 
French,  Russian,  have  in  recent  centuries  been  carried  to  other 
continents,  until  in  some,  such  as  the  Americas  and  Australia, 
the  greater  area  is  now  inhabited  by  peoples  speaking  Indo- 
European.  As  the  accompanying  maps  are  intended  to  depict 
the  historic  or  native  distribution  of  languages  they  do  not  show 
this  diffusion.  It  will  be  noted  that  the  distribution  of  Indo- 
European  has  the  form  of  a  long  belt  stretching  from  western 
Europe  to  northeastern  India,  with  an  interruption  only  in  Asia 
Minor  (Fig.  12).  Turkish  peoples  displaced  Indo-Europeans 
there  about  a  thousand  years  ago,  thus  breaking  the  territorial 
continuity.  It  is  probable  that  another  link  between  the  western 
and  eastern  Indo-Europeans  once  stretched  around  the  north  of 
the  Caspian  sea.  Here  also  there  are  Turks  now. 

Almost  equaling  Indo-European  in  the  number  of  its  speakers 
is  Sinitic,  which  is  generally  held  to  include  Chinese  proper 
with  its  dialects;  the  Tibeto-Burman  branch;  the  T’ai  or  Shan- 
Siamese  branch ;  and  probably  some  minor  divisions  like  Lolo. 

In  extent  of  territory  occupied  the  Altaic  stock  rivals  the  Indo- 
European.  Its  three  main  divisions,  Turkish,  Mongolian,  and 
Tungus-Manchu,  cover  most  of  northern  and  central  Asia  and 
some  tracts  in  Europe.  The  Turks,  as  just  noted,  are  the  only 
stock  that  within  the  period  of  history  has  gained  appreciable 
territory  at  Indo-European  expense.  The  Uralic  or  Finno- 
Ugric  family  has  eastern  Europe  and  northwestern  Asia  as  its 
home,  with  the  Finns  and  Hungarian  Magyars  as  its  most 


96 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


civilized  and  best  known  representatives.  This  is  a  scattered 
stock.  Most  scholars  unite  the  three  Altaic  divisions,  Finno- 
Ugric,  and  Samoyed  into  a  vast  Ural-Altaic  family. 

Of  the  Semitic  family,  Arabic  is  the  chief  living  represen¬ 
tative,  with  Abyssinian  in  Africa  as  a  little  known  half-sister. 
Arabic  is  one  of  the  most  widely  diffused  of  all  languages, 
and  as  the  orthodox  vehicle  of  Mohammedanism  has  served  an 
important  function  as  a  culture  carrier.  Several  great  nations 
of  ancient  times  also  spoke  Semitic  tongues:  the  Babylonians, 
Assyrians,  Phoenicians,  Carthaginians,  and  Hebrews. 

Southern  India  is  Dravidian.  While  people  of  this  family 
enter  little  into  our  customary  thoughts,  they  number  over  fifty 
millions.  Japanese  and  Korean  also  merit  mention  as  important 
stock  tongues.  Anamese,  by  some  regarded  as  an  offshoot  from 
Chinese,  may  constitute  a  separate  stock.  Several  minor  families 
will  be  found  on  the  Asiatic  map,  most  of  them  consisting  of 
uncivilized  peoples  or  limited  in  their  territory  or  the  number 
of  their  speakers.  Yet,  so  far  as  can  be  judged  from  present 
knowledge,  they  form  units  of  the  same  order  of  independence 
as  the  great  Indo-European,  Semitic,  and  Ural-Altaic  stocks. 

Language  distributions  in  Africa  are  in  the  main  simple 
(Fig.  13).  The  whole  of  northern  Africa  beyond  latitude  10°, 
and  parts  of  east  Africa  almost  to  the  equator,  were  at  one  time 
Hamitic.  This  is  the  family  to  which  the  language  of  ancient 
Egypt  belonged.  Hamitic  and  Semitic,  named  after  sons  of 
Noah,  probably  derive  from  a  common  source,  although  the 
separation  of  the  common  mother  tongue  into  the  African 
Hamitic  and  the  Asiatic  Semitic  divisions  must  have  occurred 
very  anciently.  In  the  past  thousand  years  Hamitic  has  yielded 
ground  before  Semitic,  due  to  the  spread  of  Arabic  in  Moham¬ 
medan  Africa. 

Africa  south  of  the  equator  is  the  home  of  the  great  Bantu 
family,  except  in  the  extreme  southwest  of  the  continent. 
There  a  tract  of  considerable  area,  though  of  small  populational 
density,  was  in  the  possession  of  the  backward  Bushmen  and 
Hottentots,  distinctive  in  their  physical  type  as  well  as  lan¬ 
guages. 

Between  the  equator  and  latitude  ten  north,  in  the  belt  known 
as  the  Sudan,  there  is  much  greater  speech  diversity  than  else- 


LANGUAGE  97 

where  in  Africa.  The  languages  of  the  Sudan  fall  into  several 
families,  perhaps  into  a  fairly  large  number.  Opinion  conflicts 
or  is  unsettled  as  to  their  classification.  They  are,  at  least  in 


tie  main,  non-Hamitic  and  non-Bantu;  but  this  negative  fact 
does  not  preclude  their  having  had  either  a  single  or  a  dozen 
origins.  It  has  usually  been  easier  to  throw  them  all  into  a 


98 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


vague  group  designated  as  non-Hamitic  and  non-Bantu  than  to 
compare  them  in  detail. 

In  Oceania  conditions  are  similar  to  those  of  Africa,  in  that 
there  are  a  few  great,  widely  branching  stocks  and  one  rather 
small  area,  New  Guinea,  of  astounding  speech  diversity.  Indeed, 
superficially  this  variety  is  the  outstanding  linguistic  feature  of 
New  Guinea.  The  hundreds  of  Papuan  dialects  of  the  island 
look  as  if  they  might  require  twenty  or  more  families  to  accom¬ 
modate  them.  However,  it  is  inconceivable  that  so  small  a  popu¬ 
lation  should  time  and  again  have  evolved  totally  new  forms  of 
speech.  It  is  much  more  likely  that  something  in  the  mode  of 
life  or  habits  of  mind  of  the  Papuans  has  favored  the  breaking 
up  of  their  speech  into  local  dialects  and  an  unusually  rapid 
modification  of  these  into  markedly  differentiated  languages. 
What  the  circumstances  were  that  favored  this  tendency  to 
segregation  and  change  can  be  only  conjectured.  At  any  rate, 
New  Guinea  ranks  with  the  Sudan,  western  North  America,  and 
the  Amazonian  region  of  South  America,  as  one  of  the  areas  of 
greatest  linguistic  multiplicity. 

All  the  remainder  of  Oceania  is  either  Australian  or  Malayo- 
Polynesian  in  speech.  The  Australian  idioms  have  been  imper¬ 
fectly  recorded.  They  were  numerous  and  locally  much  varied, 
but  seem  to  derive  from  a  single  mother  tongue. 

All  the  East  Indies,  including  part  of  the  Malay  Peninsula, 
and  all  of  the  island  world  of  the  Pacific — Polynesia,  Micronesia, 
and  Melanesia — always  excepting  interior  New  Guinea — are  the 
habitat  of  the  closely-knit  Malayo-Polynesian  family,  whose 
unity  was  quickly  recognized  by  philologists.  From  Madagascar 
to  Easter  Island  this  speech  stretches  more  than  half-way 
around  our  planet.  Some  authorities  believe  that  the  Mon- 
Khmer  languages  of  southern  Indo-China  and  the  Kolarian  or 
Munda-Kol  tongues  of  India  are  related  in  origin  to  Malayo- 
Polynesian,  and  denominate  the  larger  whole,  the  Austronesian 
family. 

North  and  South  America,  according  to  the  usual  reckoning, 
contain  more  native  language  families  than  all  the  remainder 
of  the  world.  The  orthodox  classification  allots  about  seventy- 
five  families  to  North  America  (some  fifty  of  them  represented 
within  the  borders  of  the  United  States)  and  another  seventy- 


Fig.  14.  Some  important  linguistic  families  of  North  America: 
1,  Eskimo;  2,  Athabascan;  3,  Algonkin;  4,  Iroquoian;  5,  Siouan;  6, 
Muskogean;  7,  Uto-Aztecan;  8,  Mayan.  SA1,  Arawak,  No.  1  on  South 
American  map  (Fig.  15).  SA8,  Chibcha,  No.  8  on  South  American 
map.  The  white  areas  are  occupied  by  nearly  seventy  smaller  families, 
according  to  the  classification  usually  accepted. 


e 


100 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


five  to  South  America.  They  varied  greatly  in  size  at  the  time 
of  discovery,  some  being  confined  to  a  few  hundred  souls, 
whereas  others  stretched  through  tribe  after  tribe  over  enormous 
areas.  Their  distribution  is  so  irregular  and  their  areas  so  dis¬ 
proportionate  as  to  be  impossible  of  vivid  representation  except 
on  a  large-scale  map  in  colors.  The  most  important  in  extent 
of  territory,  number  of  speakers,  or  the  cultural  importance  of 
the  nations  adhering  to  them,  are,  in  North  America,  Eskimo, 
Athabascan,  Algonkin,  Iroquoian,  Muskogean,  Siouan,  Uto- 
Aztecan,  Maya ;  and  in  South  America,  Chibcha,  Quechua, 
Aymara,  Araucanian,  Arawak,  Carib,  Tupi,  Tapuya.  It  will  be 
seen  on  the  maps  (Figs.  14,  15)  that  these  sixteen  groups  held 
the  greater  part  of  the  area  of  the  double  continent,  the  remain¬ 
ing  smaller  areas  being  crowded  with  about  ten  times  as  many 
stocks.  Obviously,  as  in  New  Guinea,  there  cannot  well  have 
been  such  an  original  multiplicity;  in  fact,  recent  studies  are 
tending  to  consolidate  the  hundred  and  fifty  New  World  families 
into  considerably  fewer  groups.  But  the  evidence  for  such  re¬ 
ductions  is  necessarily  difficult  to  bring  and  much  of  it  is  still 
incomplete.  The  stocks  mentioned  above  have  been  long  deter¬ 
mined  and  generally  accepted. 

About  a  third  of  humanity  to-day  speaks  some  form  of  Indo- 
European.  A  quarter  talks  some  dialect  of  Sinitic  stock. 
Semitic,  Dravidian,  Ural-Altaic,  Japanese,  Malayo-Polynesian, 
Bantu  have  each  from  about  fifty  to  a  hundred  million  speakers. 
The  languages  included  in  these  eight  families  form  the  speech 
of  approximately  ninety  per  cent  of  living  human  beings. 

51.  Classification  of  Languages  by  Types 

A  classification  is  widely  prevalent  which  puts  languages 
according  to  their  structure  into  three  types :  inflective,  agglu¬ 
tinating,  and  isolating.  To  this  some  add  a  fourth  type,  the 
polysynthetic  or  incorporating.  While  the  classification  is 
largely  misrepresentative,  it  enters  so  abundantly  into  current 
thought  about  human  speech  that  it  is  worth  presenting,  analyz¬ 
ing,  and,  so  far  as  it  is  invalid,  refuting. 

An  inflecting  language  expresses  relations  or  grammatical 
form  by  adding  prefixes  or  suffixes  which  cannot  stand  alone, 


Fig.  15.  Some  important  linguistic  families  of  South  America: 
1,  Arawak;  2,  Carib;  3,  Tapuya;  4,  Tupi;  5,  Araucanian;  6,  Ayrnara; 
7,  Quechua  (Inca) ;  8,  Chibcha.  The  white  areas  are  occupied  by  about 
seventy  smaller  families,  according  to  the  usually  accepted  classification. 
(Based  on  Chamberlain.) 


102 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


or  if  they  stood  alone  would  mean  nothing;  or  that  operates  by 
internal  modifications  of  the  stem,  which  also  can  have  no  inde¬ 
pendent  existence.  The  -ing  of  killing  is  such  an  inflection;  so 
are  the  vowel  changes  and  the  ending  -en  in  the  conjugation 
write,  wrote,  written. 

An  isolating  language  expresses  such  relations  or  forms  by 
separate  words  or  isolated  particles.  English  heart  of  man  is 
isolating,  where  the  Latin  equivalent  cor  hominis  is  inflective, 
the  per  se  meaningless  suffix  -is  rendering  the  genitive  or  pos¬ 
sessive  force  of  the  English  word  of. 

An  agglutinative  language  glues  together  into  solid  words  ele¬ 
ments  for  which  a  definite  meaning  of  their  own  can  be  traced. 
English  does  not  use  this  mechanism  for  purposes  that  are  ordi¬ 
narily  reckoned  as  strictly  grammatical,  but  does  employ  it  for 
closely  related  purposes.  TJnder-take,  rest-less,  are  examples; 
and  in  a  form  like  light-ly,  which  goes  back  to  light-like,  the 
force  of  the  suffix  which  converts  the  adjective  into  the  adverb 
is  of  a  kind  that  in  descriptions  of  most  languages  would  be 
considered  grammatical  or  formal. 

Polysynthetic  languages  are  agglutinative  ones  carried  to  a 
high  pitch,  or  those  that  can  compound  words  into  equivalents 
of  fair  sized  sentences.  St  eam-b  oat-prop  eller-blacte  might  be 
called  a  polysynthetic  form  if  we  spoke  or  wrote  it  in  one  word 
as  modern  German  and  ancient  Greek  would. 

Incorporating  languages  embody  the  object  noun,  or  the  pro¬ 
noun  representing  it,  into  the  word  that  contains  the  verb  stem. 
This  construction  is  totally  foreign  to  English.1 

Each  of  these  classes  evidently  defines  one  or  more  distinctive 
linguistic  processes.  There  are  different  mechanisms  at  work  in 
kill-ing,  of  man,  light-ly.  The  distinction  is  therefore  both  valid 
and  valuable.  Its  abuse  lies  in  trying  to  slap  the  label  of  one 
type  on  a  whole  language.  The  instances  given  show  that  Eng¬ 
lish  employs  most  of  the  several  distinct  processes.  Obviously 

1  Noun  incorporation  is  really  an  etymological  process  rather  than  a 
grammatical  one.  In  most  cases  it  is  the  result  of  a  language  permitting 
compounds  of  nouns  with  verbs,  or  verbs  with  verbs,  to  form  verbs:  “to 
rabbit-kill/'  “to  run-kill,”  and  so  on.  This  construction,  which  is  perfectly 
natural  and  logical,  happens  to  be  so  alien  to  the  genius  of  the  Indo- 
European  languages  that  it  has  been  singled  out  as  far  more  notable  and 
significant  than  it  deserves.  Pronominal  incorporation  is  discussed  below 
(§60), 


LANGUAGE 


103 


it  would  be  arbitrary  to  classify  English  as  outright  of  one  type. 
This  is  also  the  situation  for  most  other  languages.  There  are 
a  few  languages  that  tend  prevailingly  in  one  direction  or  the 
other:  Sanskrit  and  Latin  and  Hebrew  toward  the  inflective 
structure,  Turkish  toward  the  agglutinative,  Chinese  toward  the 
isolating.  But  they  form  a  small  minority,  and  most  of  them 
contain  certain  processes  of  types  other  than  their  predominat¬ 
ing  ones.  Sanskrit,  for  instance,  has  polysynthetic  traits,  He¬ 
brew  incorporating  ones.  Therefore,  so  long  as  these  concepts 
are  used  to  picture  a  language  in  detail,  with  balanced  recogni¬ 
tion  of  the  different  processes  employed  by  it,  they  are  valuable 
tools  to  philological  description.  When  on  the  other  hand  the 
concepts  are  degraded  into  catchwords  designating  three  or  four 
compartments  into  one  of  which  every  language  is  somehow  to 
be  stuffed,  they  grossly  misrepresent  most  of  the  facts.  The 
concepts,  in  short,  apply  usefully  to  types  of  linguistic  processes, 
inadequately  to  types  of  languages. 

Why  then  has  the  classification  of  human  languages  into  in¬ 
flecting,  agglutinating,  isolating,  and  polysynthetic  or  incorpo¬ 
rating  ones  been  repeated  so  often?  First  of  all,  because  lan¬ 
guages  vary  almost  infinitely,  and  a  true  or  natural  classifica¬ 
tion,  other  than  the  genetic  one  into  families,  is  intricate.  The 
mind  craves  simplicity  and  the  three  or  four  supposedly  all- 
embracing  types  are  a  temptation. 

A  second  reason  lies  deeper.  As  philology  grew  up  into  a 
systematic  body  of  knowledge,  it  centered  its  first  interests  on 
Latin  and  Greek,  then  on  Sanskrit  and  the  other  older  Indo- 
European  languages.  These  happened  to  have  inflective  proc¬ 
esses  unusually  well  developed.  They  also  happened  to  be  the 
languages  from  which  the  native  speech  of  the  philologists  was 
derived.  What  is  our  own  seems  good  to  us ;  consequently  Indo- 
European  was  elevated  into  the  highest  or  inflective  class  of  lan¬ 
guages.  As  a  sort  of  after-thought,  Semitic,  which  includes 
Hebrew,  the  language  of  part  of  our  Scriptures,  was  included. 
Then  Chinese,  which  follows  an  unusually  simple  plan  of  struc¬ 
ture  that  is  the  opposite  in  many  ways  of  the  complex  structure 
of  old  Indo-European,  and  which  was  the  speech  of  a  civilized 
people,  was  set  apart  as  a  class  of  the  second  rank.  This  left 
the  majority  of  human  languages  to  be  dumped  into  a  third 


104 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


class,  or  a  third  and  fourth  class,  with  the  pleasing  implication 
that  they  were  less  capable  of  abstraction,  more  materialistic, 
cruder,  and  generally  inferior.  Philologists  are  customarily 
regarded  as  extreme  examples  of  passionless,  dry,  objective 
human  beings.  The  history  of  this  philological  classification 
indicates  that  they  too  are  influenced  by  emotional  and  self- 
complacent  impulses. 

52.  Permanence  of  Language  and  Race 

It  is  sometimes  thought  because  a  new  language  is  readily 
learned,  especially  in  youth,  that  language  is  a  relatively  un¬ 
stable  factor  in  human  history,  less  permanent  than  race.  It 
is  necessary  to  guard  against  two  fallacies  in  this  connection. 
The  first  is  to  argue  from  individuals  to  societies ;  the  second, 
that  because  change  is  possible,  it  takes  place. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  languages  often  preserve  their  existence, 
and  even  their  territory,  with  surprising  tenacity  in  the  face  of 
conquest,  new  religions  and  culture,  and  the  economic  disad¬ 
vantages  of  unintelligibility.  To-day,  Breton,  a  Keltic  dialect, 
maintains  itself  in  Prance  as  the  every-day  language  of  the 
people  in  the  isolated  province  of  Brittany — a  sort  of  philo¬ 
logical  fossil.  It  has  withstood  the  influence  of  two  thousand 
years  of  contact,  first  with  Latin,  then  with  Prankish  German, 
at  last  with  French.  Its  Welsh  sister-tongue  flourishes  in  spite 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  speech  of  the  remainder  of  Great  Britain. 
The  original  inhabitants  of  Spain  were  mostly  of  non-Aryan 
stock.  Keltic,  Roman,  and  Gothic  invasions  have  successively 
swept  over  them  and  finally  left  the  language  of  the  country 
Romance,  but  the  original  speech  also  survives  the  vicissitudes 
of  thousands  of  years  and  is  still  spoken  in  the  western  Pyrenees 
as  Basque.  Ancient  Egypt  was  conquered  by  the  Hyksos,  the 
Assyrian,  the  Persian,  the  Macedonian,  and  the  Roman,  but 
whatever  the  official  speech  of  the  ruling  class,  the  people  con¬ 
tinued  to  speak  Egyptian.  Finally,  the  Arab  came  and  brought 
with  him  a  new  religion,  which  entailed  use  of  the  Arabic  lan¬ 
guage.  Egypt  has  at  last  become  Arabic-speaking,  but  until  a 
century  or  two  ago  the  Coptic  language,  the  daughter  of  the 
ancient  Egyptian  tongue  of  five  thousand  years  ago,  was  kept 


LANGUAGE 


105 


alive  by  the  native  Christians  along  the  Nile,  and  even  to-day 
it  survives  in  ritual.  The  boundary  between  French  on  the  one 
side  and  German,  Dutch,  and  Flemish  on  the  other,  has  been 
accurately  known  for  over  six  hundred  years.  With  all  the  wars 
and  conquests  back  and  forth  across  the  speech  line,  endless 
political  changes  and  cultural  influences,  this  line  has  scarcely 
anywhere  shifted  more  than  a  few  dozen  miles,  and  in  places 
has  not  moved  by  a  comfortable  afternoon’s  stroll. 

While  populations  can  learn  and  unlearn  languages,  they  tend 
to  do  so  with  reluctance  and  infinite  slowness,  especially  while 
they  remain  in  their  inherited  territories.  Speech  tends  to  be 
one  of  the  most  persistent  ethnic  characters. 

In  general,  where  two  populations  mingle,  the  speech  of  the 
more  numerous  prevails,  even  if  it  be  the  subject  nationality. 
A  wide  gap  in  culture  may  overcome  the  influence  of  the  ma¬ 
jority,  yet  the  speech  of  a  culturally  more  active  and  advanced 
population  ordinarily  wrests  permanent  territory  to  itself  slowly 
except  where  there  is  an  actual  crowding  out  or  numerical 
swamping  of  the  natives.  This  explains  the  numerous  survivals 
and  “islands”  of  speech:  Keltic,  Albanian,  Basque,  Caucasian, 
in  Europe ;  Dravidian  and  Kolarian  in  India ;  Nahuatl  and 
Maya  and  many  others  in  modern  Mexico;  Quechua  in  Peru; 
Aymara  in  Bolivia;  Tupi  in  Brazil.  There  are  cases  to  the 
contrary,  like  the  rapid  spread  of  Latin  in  most  of  Gaul  after 
Csesar’s  conquest,  but  they  seem  exceptional. 

As  to  the  relative  permanence  of  race  and  speech,  everything 
depends  on  the  side  from  which  the  question  is  approached. 
From  the  point  of  view  of  hereditary  strains,  race  must  be  the 
more  conservative,  because  it  can  change  rapidly  only  through 
admixture  with  another  race,  whereas  a  language  may  be  com¬ 
pletely  exchanged  in  a  short  time.  From  the  point  of  view  of 
history,  however,  which  regards  human  actions  within  given  ter¬ 
ritories,  speech  is  often  more  stable.  Wars  or  trade  or  migra¬ 
tion  may  bring  one  racial  element  after  another  into  an  area 
until  the  type  has  become  altered  or  diluted,  and  yet  the  original 
language,  or  one  directly  descended  from  it,  remains.  The  in¬ 
troduction  of  the  negro  from  Africa  to  America  illustrates  this 
distinction.  From  the  point  of  view  of  biology,  the  negro  has  at 
least  partially  preserved  his  type,  although  he  has  taken  on  a 


106 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


wholly  new  language.  As  a  matter  of  history,  the  reverse  is 
true :  English  continues  to  be  the  speech  of  the  southern  United 
States,  whereas  the  population  now  consists  of  two  races  instead 
of  one,  and  the  negro  element  has  been  altered  by  the  infusion 
of  white  blood.  It  is  a  fallacy  to  think,  because  one  can  learn 
French  or  become  a  Christian  and  yet  is  powerless  to  change 
his  eye  color  or  head  shape,  that  language  and  culture  are  alto¬ 
gether  less  stable  than  race.  Speech  and  culture  have  an  exist¬ 
ence  of  their  own,  whose  integrity  does  not  depend  on  heredi¬ 
tary  integrity.  The  two  may  move  together  or  separately. 

53.  The  Biological  and  Historical  Nature  of  Language 

It  is  a  truism,  but  one  important  never  to  forget  in  the  study 
of  man,  that  the  faculty  of  speech  is  innate,  but  every  language 
wholly  acquired.  Moreover,  the  environment  of  which  lan¬ 
guages  are  the  product  is  not  a  natural  one,  that  is,  geographic 
or  climatic,  but  social.  All  words  and  speech  forms  that  are 
learned — and  they  constitute  almost  the  complete  mass  of  lan¬ 
guage — are  imitated  directly  from  other  human  beings.  Those 
new  forms  that  from  time  to  time  come  into  use  rest  on  existing 
speech  material,  are  shaped  according  to  tendencies  already 
operative  although  perhaps  more  or  less  hidden,  cannot  gen¬ 
erally  be  attributed,  as  regards  origin,  or  at  least  entire  origin, 
to  single  individuals;  in  short,  present  a  history  similar  to  that 
of  inventions  and  new  institutions.  Language  thus  is  a  super- 
organic  product ;  which  of  course  does  not  contradict — in  fact 
implies — that  it  rests  on  an  organic  basis. 

The  “speech”  of  the  animals  other  than  man  has  something 
in  common  with  human  languages.  It  consists  of  sounds  pro¬ 
duced  by  the  body,  accompanied  by  certain  mental  activities  or 
conditions,  and  capable  of  arousing  certain  definite  responses  in 
other  individuals  of  the  species.  It  differs  from  human  speech 
in  several  fundamental  particulars.  First  of  all,  the  cries  and 
calls  and  murmurs  of  the  brutes  appear  to  be  wholly  instinctive. 
A  fowl  raised  alone  in  an  incubator  will  peep  and  crow  or  cluck 
as  it  will  scratch  and  peck.  A  dog  reared  by  a  foster  cat  will 
bark,  or  growl,  or  whine,  or  yelp,  when  it  has  attained  the 
requisite  age,  and  on  application  of  the  proper  stimulus,  as  he 


LANGUAGE 


107 


will  wag  or  crouch  or  hunt  or  dig,  and  no  differently  from  the 
dog  brought  up  in  association  with  other  dogs.  By  contrast,  the 
Japanese  infant  turned  over  to  American  foster  parents  never 
utters  or  knows  a  single  Japanese  word,  learns  only  English,  and 
learns  that  as  well  as  do  his  Caucasian  step-brothers.  Evi¬ 
dently  then,  animal  speech  is  to  all  intents  wholly  organic  and 
not  at  all  “social”  in  the  sense  of  being  superorganic.  If  this 
summary  is  not  absolutely  exact,  it  departs  from  the  truth  only 
infinitesimally. 

Further,  animal  speech  has  no  “meaning,”  does  not  serve  as 
a  vehicle  of  “communication.”  The  opposite  is  often  assumed 
popularly,  because  we  anthropomorphize.  If  it  is  said  that  a 
dog’s  growl  “means”  anger,  and  that  his  bark  “communicates” 
suspicion  or  excitement  to  his  fellows,  the  words  are  used  in  a 
sense  different  from  their  significance  when  we  say  that  the  term 
red  “means”  the  color  at  one  end  of  the  spectrum,  or  that  a 
message  of  departure  “communicates”  information.  The  ani¬ 
mal  sounds  convey  knowledge  only  of  subjective  states.  They 
“impart”  the  fact  that  the  utterer  feels  anger,  excitement,  fear, 
pain,  contentment,  or  some  other  affect.  They  are  immediate 
reflex  responses  to  a  feeling.  They  may  be  “understood”  in  the 
sense  that  a  sympathetic  feeling  is  evoked  or  at  any  rate  mo¬ 
bilized;  and  thereby  they  may  lead  or  tend  to  lead  to  action  by 
the  hearers.  In  the  same  way,  any  man  instinctively  “under¬ 
stands”  the  moan  of  a  fellow  human  being.  But  the  moan  does 
not  tell  whether  the  pain  is  of  a  second’s  or  a  week’s  duration, 
due  to  a  blow  or  to  gas  in  the  bowel,  to  an  ulcerated  tooth  or 
to  mental  anguish.  There  is  no  communication  of  anything 
objective,  of  ideas  as  distinct  from  feelings,  as  when  we  say  red 
or  break  or  up  or  water.  Not  one  of  these  simple  concepts  can 
be  communicated  as  such  by  any  brute  speech. 

One  consequence  is  the  ‘  ‘  arbitrariness  ’  ’  of  human  speech. 
Why  should  the  sound-cluster  red  denote  that  particular  color 
rather  than  green?  Why  does  the  same  word  often  designate 
quite  distinct  ideas  in  different  languages — the  approximate 
sound  group  lay  meaning  ‘  ‘  milk  ’  ’  in  French ;  lass  ‘  ‘  a  girl  ’  ’  in 
English,  “tired”  in  French,  “allow”  in  German?  Such  facts 
are  physiologically  arbitrary;  just  as  it  is  physiologically  arbi¬ 
trary  and  organically  meaningless  that  Americans  live  in  a 


108 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


republic  and  Britons  under  a  monarchy,  or  that  they  turn  re¬ 
spectively  to  the  right  and  left  on  the  road.  Phenomena  like 
these  have  other  social,  cultural,  or  superorganic  phenomena  as 
their  immediate  causes  or  antecedents.  In  the  light  of  such 
antecedents,  viewed  on  the  level  of  history,  these  phenomena  are 
intelligible :  we  know  why  the  United  States  is  a  republic,  we 
can  trace  the  development  of  words  like  lay  and  lass.  It  is  only 
from  the  biological  plane  that  such  facts  seem  insignificant  or 
arbitrary. 


54.  Problems  of  the  Relation  of  Language  and  Culture 


This  association  of  language  and  civilization,  or  let  us  say  the 
linguistic  and  non-linguistic  constituents  of  culture,  brings  up 
the  problem  whether  it  would  be  possible  for  one  to  exist  with¬ 
out  the  other.  Actually,  of  course,  no  such  case  is  known. 
Speculatively,  different  conclusions  might  be  reached.  It  is  dif¬ 
ficult  to  imagine  any  generalized  thinking  taking  place  without 
words  or  symbols  derived  from  words.  Religious  beliefs  and 
certain  phases  of  social  organization  also  seem  dependent  on 
speech :  caste  ranking,  marriage  regulations,  kinship  recognition, 
law,  and  the  like.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  conceivable  that  a 
considerable  series  of  inventions  might  be  made,  and  the  applied 
arts  might  be  developed  in  a  fair  measure  by  imitation,  among 
a  speechless  people.  Finally  there  seems  no  reason  why  certain 
elements  of  culture,  such  as  music,  should  not  flourish  as  suc¬ 
cessfully  in  a  society  without  as  with  language. 

For  the  converse,  a  cultureless  species  of  animal  might  con¬ 
ceivably  develop  and  use  a  form  of  true  speech.  Such  com¬ 
munications  as  “The  river  is  rising,”  “Bite  it  off,”  “What  do 
you  find  inside?”  would  be  within  the  range  of  thought  of  such 
a  species.  Why  then  have  even  the  most  intelligent  of  the 
brutes  failed  to  develop  a  language?  Possibly  because  such  a 
language  would  lack  a  definite  survival  value  for  the  species,  in 
the  absence  of  accompanying  culture. 

On  the  whole,  however,  it  would  seem  that  language  and  cul¬ 
ture  rest,  in  a  way  which  is  not  yet  fully  understood,  on  the 
same  set  of  faculties,  and  that  these,  for  some  reason  that  is 
still  more  obscure,  developed  in  the  ancestors  of  man,  while 


LANGUAGE 


109 


remaining  in  abeyance  in  other  species.  Even  the  anthropoid 
apes  seem  virtually  devoid  of  the  impulse  to  communicate,  in 
spite  of  freely  expressing  their  affective  states  of  mind  by  voice, 
facial  gesture,  and  bodily  movement.  The  most  responsive  to 
man  of  all  species,  the  dog,  learns  to  accept  a  considerable  stock 
of  culture  in  the  sense  of  fitting  himself  to  it :  he  develops  con¬ 
science  and  manners,  for  example.  Yet,  however  highly  bred, 
he  does  not  hand  on  his  accomplishments  to  his  progeny,  who 
again  depend  on  their  human  masters  for  what  they  acquire. 
A  group  of  the  best  reared  dogs  left  to  themselves  for  a  few 
years  would  lose  all  their  politeness  and  revert  to  the  pre¬ 
domestic  habits  of  their  species.  In  short,  the  culture  impulse 
is  lacking  in  the  dog  except  so  far  as  it  is  instilled  by  man ;  and 
in  most  animals  it  can  notoriously  be  instilled  only  to  a  very 
limited  degree.  In  the  same  way,  the  impulse  toward  com¬ 
munication  can  be  said  to  be  wanting.  A  dog  may  understand 
a  hundred  words  of  command  and  express  in  his  behavior  fifty 
shades  of  emotion ;  only  rarely  does  he  seem  to  try  to  com¬ 
municate  information  of  objective  fact.  Very  likely  we  are 
attributing  to  him  even  in  these  rare  cases  the  impulse  which 
wTe  should  feel.  In  the  event  of  a  member  of  the  family  being 
injured  or  lost,  it  is  certain  that  a  good  dog  expresses  his  agita¬ 
tion,  uneasiness,  disturbed  attachment;  but  much  less  certain 
is  it  that  he  intends  to  summon  help,  as  we  spontaneously 
incline  to  believe  because  such  summoning  would  be  our  own 
reaction  to  the  situation. 

The  history  and  causes  of  the  development  in  incipient  man 
of  the  group  of  traits  that  may  be  called  the  faculties  for  speech 
and  civilization  remain  one  of  the  darkest  areas  in  the  field  of 
knowledge.  It  is  plain  that  these  faculties  lie  essentially  in  the 
sphere  of  what  is  ordinarily  called  the  mind,  rather  than  in 
the  body,  since  men  and  the  apes  are  far  more  similar  in  their 
general  physiques  than  they  are  in  the  degree  of  their  ability 
to  use  their  physiques  for  non-physiological  purposes.  Or,  if 
this  antithesis  of  physical  and  mental  seem  unfortunate,  it  might 
be  said  that  the  growth  of  the  faculties  for  speech  and  culture 
was  connected  more  with  special  developments  of  the  central 
nervous  system  than  with  those  of  the  remainder  of  the  body. 


110 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


55.  Period  of  the  Origin  of  Language 

Is,  then,  human  language  as  old  as  culture  ?  It  is  dif¬ 
ficult  to  be  positive,  because  words  perish  like  beliefs  and  insti¬ 
tutions,  whereas  stone  tools  endure  as  direct  evidence.  On  the 
whole,  however,  it  would  appear  that  the  first  rudiments  of 
what  deserves  to  be  called  language  are  about  as  ancient  as  the 
first  culture  manifestations,  not  only  because  of  the  theoretically 
close  association  of  the  two  phases,  but  in  the  light  of  circum¬ 
stantial  testimony,  namely  the  skull  interiors  of  fossil  men.  In 
Piltdown  as  well  as  Neandertal  man,  those  brain  cortex  areas  in 
which  the  nervous  activities  connected  with  auditory  and  motor 
speech  are  most  centralized  in  modern  man,  are  fairly  well 
developed,  as  shown  by  casts  of  the  skull  interiors,  which  con¬ 
form  closely  to  the  brain  surface.  The  general  frontal  region, 
the  largest  area  of  the  cortex  believed  to  be  devoted  to  associa¬ 
tive  functions — in  loose  parlance,  to  thought — is  also  greater 
than  in  any  known  ape.  More  than  one  authority  has  therefore 
felt  justified  in  attributing  speech  to  the  ancestors  of  man  that 
lived  well  back  in  the  Pleistocene.  The  lower  jaws  of  Piltdown 
and  in  a  measure  of  Heidelberg  man,  it  is  true,  are  narrow  and 
chinless,  thus  leaving  somewhat  less  free  play  to  the  tongue  than 
living  human  races  enjoy.  But  this  factor  is  probably  of  less 
importance  than  the  one  of  mental  facultative  development. 
The  parrot  is  lipless  and  yet  can  reproduce  the  sounds  of  human 
speech.  What  he  lacks  is  language  faculty;  and  this,  it  seems, 
fossil  man  already  had  in  some  measure. 

56.  Culture,  Speech,  and  Nationality 

This  point  of  view  raises  the  question  whether  one  ought  to 
speak  of  language  and  culture  or  rather  of  language  as  a  part 
of  culture.  So  far  as  the  process  of  their  transmission  is  con¬ 
cerned,  and  the  type  of  mechanism  of  their  development,  it  is 
clear  that  language  and  culture  are  one.  For  practical  pur¬ 
poses  it  is  generally  convenient  to  keep  them  distinct.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  two  peoples  can  share  in  what  is  substantially 
the  same  culture  and  yet  speak  fundamentally  different  idioms ; 
for  instance,  the  Finno-Ugric  Magyars  or  Hungarians  among 


LANGUAGE 


ill 


the  adjacent  Slavs,  Germans,  and  Latins  of  central  Europe,  who 
are  all  Indo-Europeans.  The  other  way  around,  the  northern 
Hindus  and  west  Europeans  are  certainly  different  culturally, 
yet  their  languages  go  back  to  a  common  origin.  In  fact  it  has 
become  a  commonplace  that  thq  arguing  of  connection  between 
the  three  factors  of  race,  language,  and  culture  (or  nationality), 
the  making  of  inferences  from  one  to  the  other,  is  logically  un¬ 
sound  (§  33).  One  can  no  more  think  correctly  in  terms  of 
Aryan  heads  or  a  Semitic  race,  for  instance,  than  of  blond  lin¬ 
guistic  types,  Catholic  physiques,  or  inflecting  social  institutions. 

At  the  same  time,  speech  and  culture  tend  to  form  something 
of  a  unit  as  opposed  to  race.  It  is  possible  for  a  population  to 
substitute  a  wholly  new  language  and  type  of  civilization  for 
the  old  ones,  as  the  American  negro  has  done,  and  yet  to  remain 
relatively  unmodified  racially,  or  at  least  to  carry  on  its  former 
physical  type  unchanged  in  a  large  proportion  of  its  members. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  change  of  speech  without  some  change  of 
culture  seems  impossible.  Certainly  wherever  Greek,  Latin, 
Spanish,  English,  Arabic,  Pali,  Chinese  have  penetrated,  there 
have  been  established  new  phases  of  civilization.  In  a  lower 
degree,  the  same  principle  probably  holds  true  of  every  gain  of 
one  language  at  the  expense  of  another,  even  when  the  spread¬ 
ing  idiom  is  not  associated  with  a  great  or  active  culture. 

The  linkage  of  speech  and  culture  is  further  perceptible  in 
the  degree  to  which  they  both  contribute,  in  most  cases,  to  the 
idea  of  nationality.  What  chiefly  marks  off  the  French  nation 
from  the  Italian,  the  Dutch  from  the  German,  the  Swedish  from 
the  Norwegian — their  respective  customs  and  ideals,  or  the  lan¬ 
guage  gap?  It  would  be  difficult  to  say.  The  cultural  differ¬ 
ences  tend  to  crystallize  around  language  differences,  and  then 
in  turn  are  reinforced  by  language,  so  that  the  two  factors 
interact  complexly.  Nationality,  especially  in  its  modern  de¬ 
velopments,  includes  another  factor,  that  of  social  or  political 
segregation,  which  may  in  some  degree  run  counter  to  both 
speech  and  culture.  Switzerland  with  its  German,  French,  and 
Italian  speaking  population,  or  Belgium,  almost  equally  divided 
between  Flemings  and  Walloons,  are  striking  examples.  Yet 
however  successfully  Switzerland  and  Belgium  maintain  their 
national  unity,  it  is  clear  that  this  is  a  composite  of  subnational 


112 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


elements,  each  of  which  possesses  a  certain  cultural  as  well  as 
linguistic  distinctness.  Thus  the  Walloon  speaks  a  French  dia¬ 
lect,  the  Fleming  a  Dutch  one ;  and  the  point  of  view,  tempera¬ 
ment,  historic  antecedents,  and  minor  customs  of  the  two  groups 
are  perceptibly  different.  Similarly,  both  the  history  and  the 
outlook  and  therefore  the  culture  of  the  French  and  German 
cantons  of  Switzerland  are  definitely  distinguishable. 

57.  Relative  Worth  of  Languages 

One  respect  in  which  languages  differ  from  cultures  is  that 
they  cannot,  like  the  latter,  be  rated  as  higher  and  lower.  Of 
course,  even  as  regards  culture,  such  rating  is  often  a  dubious 
procedure,  meaning  little  more  than  that  the  person  making  the 
comparison  assumes  his  own  culture  to  be  the  highest  and  esti¬ 
mates  other  cultures  low  in  proportion  as  they  vary.  Although 
this  is  a  subjective  and  uncritical  procedure,  nevertheless  cer¬ 
tain  objective  comparisons  are  possible.  Some  cultures  surpass 
others  in  their  quantitative  content:  they  possess  more  different 
arts,  abilities,  and  items  of  knowledge.  Also,  some  culture  traits 
may  be  considered  intrinsically  superior  to  others :  metal  tools 
against  stone  ones,  for  instance,  since  metal  is  adopted  by  all 
stone  culture  peoples  who  can  secure  it,  whereas  the  reverse  is 
not  true.  Further,  in  most  -cases  a  new  addition  does  not  wholly 
obliterate  an  older  element,  this  retaining  a  subsidiary  place,  or 
perhaps  serving  some  more  special  function  than  before.  In 
this  way  the  culture  becomes  more  differentiated.  The  old  art 
may  even  attain  a  higher  degree  of  perfection  than  it  had  pre¬ 
viously;  as  the  finest  polish  was  given  to  stone  implements  in 
northern  Europe  after  bronze  was  known.  In  general,  accre¬ 
tion  is  the  process  typical  of  culture  growth.  Older  elements 
come  to  function  in  a  more  limited  sphere  as  new  ones  are  added, 
but  are  not  extirpated  by  them.  Oars  and  sails  remain  as  con¬ 
stituent  parts  of  the  stock  of  civilization  after  it  has  added  steam 
and  motor  boats.  In  the  senses  then  that  a  culture  has  a  larger 
content  of  elements,  that  these  elements  are  more  differentiated, 
and  that  a  greater  proportion  of  these  elements  are  of  the  kind 
that  inherently  tend  to  supersede  related  elements,  the  culture 
may  be  considered  superior. 


LANGUAGE 


113 


As  regards  languages,  there  are  also  quantitative  differences. 
Some  contain  several  times  as  many  words  as  others.  But 
vocabulary  is  largely  a  cultural  matter.  A  people  that  uses 
more  materials,  manufactures  more  objects,  possesses  knowledge 
of  a  larger  array  of  facts,  and  makes  finer  discriminations  in 
thought,  must  inevitably  have  more  words.  Yet  even  notable 
increases  in  size  of  speech  content  appear  not  to  be  accompanied 
by  appreciable  changes  in  form.  A  larger  vocabulary  does  not 
mean  a  different  type  of  structure.  Grammar  seems  to  be  little 
influenced  by  culture  status.  No  clear  correspondence  has  yet 
been  traceable  between  type  or  degree  of  civilization  and  type 
of  language.  Neither  the  presence  nor  the  absence  of  particular 
features  of  tense,  number,  case,  reduplication,  or  the  like  seems 
ever  to  have  been  of  demonstrable  advantage  toward  the  attain¬ 
ment  of  higher  culture.  The  speech  of  the  former  and  modern 
nations  most  active  in  the  propagation  of  culture  has  been  of 
quite  diverse  type.  The  languages  of  the  Egyptians  (Hamitic)  ; 
Sumerians;  Babylonians  and  Arabs  (Semitic);  Hindus  and 
Greeks  (ancient  Indo-European)  ;  Anglo-Saxons  (modern  Indo- 
European)  ;  Chinese;  and  Mayas,  are  about  as  different  as  exist. 
The  Sumerian  type  of  civilization  was  taken  over  bodily  and 
successfully  by  the  Semitic  Babylonians.  The  bulk  of  Japanese 
culture  is  Chinese;  yet  Japanese  speech  is  built  on  wholly  dif¬ 
ferent  principles. 

Then,  it  is  impossible  to  rate  one  speech  trait  or  type  as  in¬ 
herently  or  objectively  superior  to  another  on  any  basis  like 
that  which  justifies  the  placing  of  a  metal  culture  above  a  stone 
culture.  If  wealth  of  grammatical  apparatus  is  a  criterion  of 
superiority,  Latin  is  a  higher  language  than  French,  and  Anglo- 
Saxon  than  English.  But  if  lack  of  declensions  and  conjuga¬ 
tions  is  a  virtue,  then  Chinese  surpasses  English  almost  as  much 
as  English  surpasses  Latin.  There  is  no  reason  favoring  one 
of  these  possible  judgments  rather  than  its  opposite.  Amabo 
is  no  better  or  worse  than  I  shall  love  as  a  means  of  expressing 
the  same  idea.  The  one  is  more  compact,  the  other  more  plastic. 
There  are  times  when  compactness  is  a  virtue,  occasions  when 
plasticity  has  advantages.  By  the  Latin  or  synthetic  standard, 
the  English  expression  is  loose  jointed,  lacking  in  structure;  by 
the  English  or  analytic  standard,  the  Latin  form  is  over-con- 


114 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


densed,  adhering  unnecessarily  to  form.  One  cannot  similarly 
balance  the  merits  of  a  steel  and  a  flint  knife,  of  a  medical  and 
a  shamanistic  phase  of  society.  The  one  cuts  or  cures  better 
than  the  other. 

So,  from  the  point  of  view  of  civilization,  language  does  not 
matter.  Language  will  always  keep  up  with  whatever  pace  cul¬ 
ture  sets  it.  If  a  new  object  is  invented  or  a  new  distinction 
of  thought  made,  a  word  is  coined  or  imported  or  modified  in 
meaning  to  express  the  new  concept.  If  a  thousand  or  ten 
thousand  new  words  are  required,  they  are  developed.  When 
it  desires  to  express  abstractions  like  futurity  or  plurality,  any 
language  is  capable  of  doing  so,  even  if  it  does  not  habitually 
express  them.  If  a  language  is  unprovided  with  formal  means 
for  the  purpose,  such  as  a  grammatical  suffix,  it  falls  back  on 
content  and  uses  a  word  or  circumlocution.  If  the  life  of  a 
people  changes  and  comes  to  be  conducted  along  lines  that  render 
it  frequently  important  to  express  an  idea  like  futurity  to  which 
previously  little  attention  has  been  paid,  the  appropriate  cir¬ 
cumlocution  soon  becomes  standardized,  conveniently  brief,  and 
unambiguous.  In  general,  every  language  is  capable  of  indefi¬ 
nite  modification  and  expansion  and  thereby  is  enabled  to  meet 
cultural  demands  almost  at  once.  This  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  virtually  anything  spoken  or  written  can  be  translated  into 
almost  every  other  language  without  serious  impairment  of  sub¬ 
stance.  The  aesthetic  charm  of  the  original  may  be  lost  in  the 
translation;  the  new  forms  coined  in  the  receiving  language  are 
likely  at  first  to  seem  awkward;  but  the  meaning,  the  business 
of  speech,  gets  expressed. 

58.  Size  of  Vocabulary 

The  tendency  is  so  instinctive  in  us  to  presuppose  and  there¬ 
fore  to  find  qualities  of  inferiority,  poverty,  or  incompleteness 
in  the  speech  of  populations  of  more  backward  culture  than  our 
own,  that  a  widespread,  though  unfounded,  belief  has  grown  up 
that  the  languages  of  savages  and  barbarians  are  extremely 
limited  quantitatively — in  the  range  of  their  vocabulary.  Similar 
misconceptions  are  current  as  to  the  number  of  words  actually 
used  by  single  individuals  of  civilized  communities.  It  is  true 


LANGUAGE 


115 


that  no  one,  not  even  the  most  learned  and  prolific  writer,  uses 
all  the  words  of  the  English  language  as  they  are  found  in  an 
unabridged  dictionary.  All  of  us  understand  many  words  which 
we  habitually  encounter  in  reading  and  may  even  hear  fre¬ 
quently  spoken,  but  of  which  our  utterance  faculties  for  some 
reason  have  not  made  us  master.  In  short,  a  language,  being 
the  property  and  product  of  a  community,  possesses  more  words 
than  can  ever  be  used  by  a  single  individual,  the  sum  total  of 
whose  ideas  is  necessarily  less  than  that  of  his  group.  Added 
to  this  are  a  certain  mental  sluggishness,  which  restricts  most  of 
us  to  a  greater  or  less  degree,  and  the  force  of  habit.  Having 
spoken  a  certain  word  a  number  of  times,  our  brain  becomes 
accustomed  to  it  and  we  are  likely  to  employ  it  to  the  exclusion 
of  its  synonyms  or  in  place  of  words  of  related  but  distinguish¬ 
able  meaning. 

The  degree  to  which  all  this  affects  the  speech  of  the  normal 
man  has,  however,  been  greatly  exaggerated.  Because  there  are, 
all  told,  including  technical  terms,  a  hundred  thousand  or  more 
words  in  our  dictionaries,  and  because  Shakespeare  in  his  writ¬ 
ings  used  24,000  different  words,  Milton  in  his  poems  17,000, 
and  the  English  Bible  contains  7,200,  it  has  been  concluded  that 
the  average  man,  whose  range  of  thought  and  power  of  expres¬ 
sion  are  so  much  less,  must  use  an  enormously  smaller  vocabu¬ 
lary.  It  has  been  stated  that  many  a  peasant  goes  through  life 
without  using  more  than  300  or  400  words,  that  the  vocabulary 
of  Italian  grand  opera  is  about  600,  and  that  he  is  a  person  above 
the  average  who  employs  more  than  3,000  to  4,000  words.  If 
such  were  the  case  it  would  be  natural  that  the  uncivilized  man, 
whose  life  is  simpler,  and  whose  knowledge  more  confined,  should 
be  content  with  an  exceedingly  small  vocabulary. 

But  it  is  certain  that  the  figures  just  cited  are  erroneous.  If 
any  one  who  considers  himself  an  average  person  will  take  the 
trouble  to  make  a  list  of  his  speaking  vocabulary,  he  will  quickly 
discover  that  he  knows,  and  on  occasion  uses,  the  names  of  at 
least  one  to  two  thousand  different  things.  That  is,  his  vocabu¬ 
lary  contains  so  many  concrete  nouns.  To  these  must  be  added 
the  abstract  nouns,  the  verbs,  adjectives,  pronouns,  and  the 
other  parts  of  speech,  the  short  and  familiar  words  that  are 
indispensable  to  communication  in  any  language.  It  may  thus 


116 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


be  safely  estimated  that  it  is  an  exceptionally  ignorant  and 
stupid  person  in  a  civilized  country  that  has  not  at  his  command 
a  vocabulary  of  several  thousand  words. 

Test  counts  based  on  dictionaries  show,  for  people  of  bookish 
tastes,  a  knowledge  of  about  30,000  to  35,000  words.  Most  of 
these  would  perhaps  never  be  spoken  by  the  individuals  tested, 
would  not  be  at  their  actual  command,  but  it  seems  that  at  least 
10,000  would  be  so  controlled.  The  carefully  counted  vocabulary 
of  a  five  and  a  half  year  old  American  boy  comprised  1,528 
understanding^  used  words,  besides  participles  and  other  in¬ 
flected  forms.  Two  boys  between  two  and  three  years  used  642 
and  677  different  words. 

It  is  therefore  likely  that  statements  as  to  the  paucity  of  the 
speech  of  unlettered  peoples  are  equally  exaggerated.  He  who 
professes  to  declare  on  the  strength  of  his  observation  that  a 
native  language  consists  of  only  a  few  hundred  terms,  displays 
chiefly  his  ignorance.  He  has  either  not  taken  the  trouble  to 
exhaust  the  vocabulary  or  has  not  known  how  to  do  so.  It  is 
true  that  the  traveler  or  settler  can  usually  converse  with  natives 
to  the  satisfaction  of  his  own  needs  with  two  or  three  hundred 
words.  Even  the  missionary  can  do  a  great  deal  with  this  stock, 
if  it  is  properly  chosen.  But  it  does  not  follow  that  because  a 
civilized  person  has  not  learned  more  of  a  language,  that  there 
is  no  more.  On  this  point  the  testimony  of  the  student  is  the 
evidence  to  be  considered. 

Dictionaries  compiled  by  missionaries  or  philologists  of  lan¬ 
guages  previously  unwritten  run  to  surprising  figures.  Thus, 
the  number  of  words  recorded  in  Klamath,  the  speech  of  a  cul¬ 
turally  rude  American  Indian  tribe,  is  7,000;  in  Navaho,  11,000; 
in  Zulu,  17,000 ;  in  Dakota,  19,000 ;  in  Maya,  20,000 ;  in 
Nahuatl,  27,000.  It  may  safely  be  said  that  every  existing  lan¬ 
guage,  no  matter  how  backward  its  speakers  are  in  their  general 
civilization,  possesses  a  vocabulary  of  at  least  5,000  words. 

59.  Quality  of  Speech  Sounds 

Another  mistaken  assumption  that  is  frequently  made  is  that 
the  speech  of  non-literary  peoples  is  harsh,  its  pronunciation 
more  difficult  than  ours.  This  belief  is  purely  subjective.  When 


LANGUAGE 


117 


one  has  heard  and  uttered  a  language  all  his  life,  its  sounds  come 
to  one ’s  mouth  with  a  minimum  of  effort ;  but  unfamiliar  vowels 
and  consonants  are  formed  awkwardly  and  inaccurately.  No 
adult  reared  in  an  Anglo-Saxon  community  finds  th  difficult. 
Nor  does  a  French  or  German  child,  whose  speech  habits  are  still 
plastic,  find  long  difficulty  in  mastering  the  particular  tongue 
control  necessary  to  the  production  of  the  th  sound.  But  the 
adult  Frenchman  or  German,  whose  muscular  habits  have  settled 
in  other  lines,  tries  and  tries  and  falls  back  on  s  or  t.  A 
Spaniard,  however,  would  agree  with  the  Anglo-Saxon  as  to  the 
ease  and  “ naturalness 7 9  of  th.  Conversely,  the  “ rough”  ch 
flows  spontaneously  out  of  the  mouth  of  a  German  or  Scotchman, 
whereas  English,  French,  and  Italians  have  to  struggle  long  to 
master  it,  and  are  tempted  to  substitute  k.  German  d  and 
French  u  trouble  us,  our  “short”  u  is  equally  resistant  to  Con¬ 
tinental  tongues. 

Even  a  novel  position  can  make  a  familiar  sound  strange  and 
forbidding.  Most  Anglo-Saxons  fail  on  the  first  try  to  say 
ngis;  many  give  up  and  declare  it  beyond  their  capacity  to  learn. 
Yet  it  is  only  sing  pronounced  backward.  English  uses  ng 
finally  and  medially  in  words,  not  initially.  Any  English 
speaker  can  quickly  acquire  its  use  in  the  new  position  if,  to 
keep  from  being  disconcerted,  he  follows  some  such  sequence 
as  sing,  singing,  stinging,  ringing,  inging,  nging,  ngis. 

So  with  surd  l — Welsh  ll — which  is  ordinary  l  minus  the 
accompaniment  of  vocal  cord  vibrations.  A  little  practice 
makes  possible  the  throwing  on  or  off  of  these  vibrations,  the 
“voicing”  of  speech,  for  any  sound,  with  as  much  ease  as  one 
would  turn  a  faucet  on  or  off.  Surd  l  thereupon  flows  with  the 
same  readiness  as  sonant  l.  As  a  matter  of  fact  we  often  pro¬ 
nounce  it  unconsciously  at  the  end  of  words  like  little.  When 
it  comes  at  the  beginning,  however,  as  in  the  tribal  name  usually 
written  Tlingit,  Americans  tend  to  substitute  something  more 
habitual,  such  as  kl,  which  is  familiar  from  clip,  clean,  clear, 
close ,  clam,  and  many  other  words.  The  simple  surd  l  has  even 
been  repeatedly  described  quite  inappropriately  as  a  “click”; 
which  is  about  as  far  from  picturing  it  with  correctness  as  call¬ 
ing  it  a  thump  or  a  sigh ;  all  because  it  comes  in  an  unaccus¬ 
tomed  position. 


118 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


Combinations  of  sounds,  especially  of  consonants,  are  indeed 
of  variable  difficulty  for  anatomical  reasons.  Some,  like  nd  and 
ts  and  pf,  have  their  components  telescope  or  join  naturally 
through  being  formed  in  the  same  part  of  the  mouth.  Others, 
like  kw  ( qu ),  have  the  two  elements  articulated  widely  apart, 
but  for  that  reason  the  elements  can  easily  be  formed  simul¬ 
taneously.  Still  others,  like  kt  and  ths,  are  intrinsically  diffi¬ 
cult,  because  the  elements  differ  in  place  of  production  but  are 
alike  in  method,  and  therefore  come  under  the  operation  of  the 
generic  rule  that  similar  sounds  require  more  effort  to  join  and 
yet  discriminate  than  dissimilar  ones ;  for  much  the  same  reason 
that  it  is  on  the  whole  easier  to  acquire  the  pronounciation  of  a 
wholly  new  type  of  sound  than  of  one  which  differs  subtly  from 
one  already  known.  Yet  in  these  matters  too,  habit  rather  than 
anatomical  functioning  determines  the  reaction.  German  pf 
comes  hard  to  adult  Anglo-Saxons,  English  kw  and  ths  to  Ger¬ 
mans.  So  far  as  degree  of  accumulation  of  consonants  is  con¬ 
cerned,  English  is  one  of  the  extremest  of  all  languages.  Mono¬ 
syllables  like  tract ,  stripped  ( stripd ),  sixths  ( siksths ),  must  seem 
irremediably  hard  to  most  speakers  of  other  idioms. 

Children’s  speech  in  all  languages  shows  that  certain  sounds 
are,  as  a  rule,  learned  earlier  than  others,  and  are  therefore  pre¬ 
sumably  somewhat  easier  physiologically.  Sounds  like  p  and  t 
which  are  formed  with  the  mobile  lips  and  front  of  the  tongue 
normally  precede  back  tongue  sounds  like  k.  B,  d,  g,  which  are 
voiced  like  vowels,  tend  to  precede  voiceless  p ,  t,  k.  Stops  or 
momentary  sounds,  such  as  b ,  d,  g,  p,  t ,  k ,  generally  come  earlier 
than  the  fricative  continuants  f,  v,  th,  s,  z,  which  require  a  deli¬ 
cate  adjustment  of  lip  or  tongue — close  proximity  without  firm 
contact — whereas  the  stops  involve  only  a  making  and  breaking 
of  jerky  contact.  But  so  slight  are  the  differences  of  effort  or 
skill  in  all  these  cases,  that  as  a  rule  only  a  few  months  separate 
the  learning  of  the  easier  from  that  of  the  more  difficult  sounds ; 
and  adults  no  longer  feel  the  differences.  The  only  sound  or 
class  of  sounds  seriously  harder  than  others  seems  to  be  that 
denoted  by  the  letter  r.  Not  only  do  children  usually  acquire  r 
late,  but  among  all  races  there  appears  to  be  a  certain  percen¬ 
tage  of  individuals  who  never  learn  to  form  the  sound  right,  but 
substitute  one  approaching  g  or  w  or  j  or  l.  The  reason  is  that 


LANGUAGE 


119 


r  stands  alone  among  speech  sounds.  It  is  the  only  one  pro¬ 
duced  by  blowing  the  tongue  into  a  few  gross  vibrations ;  which 
means  that  this  organ  must  be  held  in  a  special  condition  of 
laxness  and  yet  elevated  so  that  the  flow  of  breath  may  bear 
on  it.  However,  even  this  inherent  difficulty  has  been  insuffi¬ 
cient  to  prevent  many  languages  from  changing  easier  sounds 
into  r. 

60.  Diffusion  and  Parallelism  in  Language  and  Culture 

A  phenomenon  which  language  shows  more  conspicuously 
than  culture,  or  which  is  more  readily  demonstrated  in  it,  is 
parallel  or  convergent  development,  the  repeated,  independent 
growth  of  a  trait  (§89,  100). 

Thus  sex  gender  is  an  old  part  of  Indo-European  structure. 
In  English,  by  the  way,  it  has  wholly  disappeared,  so  far  as 
formal  expression  goes,  from  noun,  adjective,  and  demonstrative 
and  interrogative  pronoun.  It  lingers  only  in  the  personal  pro¬ 
noun  of  the  third  person  singular — he,  she ,  it.  A  grammar  of 
living  English  that  was  genuinely  practical  and  unbound  by 
tradition  would  never  mention  gender  except  in  discussing  these 
three  little  words.  That  our  grammars  specify  man  as  a  mas¬ 
culine  and  woman  as  a  feminine  noun  is  due  merely  to  the  fact 
that  in  Latin  the  corresponding  words  vir  and  femina  possess 
endings  which  are  recognized  as  generally  masculine  and  femi¬ 
nine,  and  that  an  associated  adjective  ends  respectively  in  mas¬ 
culine  - us  or  feminine  -a.  These  are  distinctions  of  form  of 
which  English  possesses  no  equivalents.  The  survival  of  dis¬ 
tinction  between  he,  she,  and  it,  while  this  and  the  and  which 
have  become  alike  irrespective  of  the  sex  of  the  person  or  thing 
they  denote,  is  therefore  historically  significant.  It  points  back 
to  the  past  and  to  surviving  Indo-European  languages. 

Besides,  Indo-European,  Semitic  and  Hamitic  express  sex  by 
grammatical  forms,  although  like  French  and  Spanish  and 
Italian,  they  know  only  two  genders,  the  neuter  being  unrep¬ 
resented.  These  three  are  the  only  large  language  stocks  in 
which  sex  gender  finds  expression.  Ural-Altaic,  Chinese,  Japa¬ 
nese,  Dravidian,  Malayo-Polynesian,  Bantu,  and  in  general  the 
language  families  of  Asia,  Africa,  and  America  do  without, 


120 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


although  a  number  of  languages  make  other  gender  classifica¬ 
tions,  as  of  animate  and  inanimate,  personal  and  impersonal, 
superior  and  inferior,  intelligent  and  unintelligent.  Sex  gender 
however  reappears  in  Hottentot  of  South  Africa,  and  in  the 
Chinook  and  Coast  Salish  and  Porno  languages  of  the  Pacific 
coast  of  North  America. 

How  is  this  distribution  to  be  accounted  for  ?  Indo-European, 
Semitic,  and  Hamitic  occupy  contiguous  territory,  in  fact  sur¬ 
round  the  Mediterranean  over  a  tract  approximately  co-extensive 
with  the  Caucasian  area.  Could  they  in  the  remote  past  have 
influenced  one  another?  That  is,  could  grammatical  sex  gender 
have  been  invented,  so  to  speak,  by  one  of  them,  and  borrowed 
by  the  others,  as  we  know  that  cultural  inventions  are  constantly 
diffused  ?  Few  philologists  would  grant  this  as  likely :  there  are 
too  few  authenticated  cases  of  formal  elements  or  concepts 
having  been  disseminated  between  unrelated  languages.  Is  it 
then  possible  that  our  three  stocks  are  at  bottom  related?  Sex 
gender  in  that  case  would  be  part  of  their  common  inheritance. 
For  Semitic  and  Hamitic  a  number  of  specialists  have  accepted 
a  common  origin  on  other  grounds.  But  for  Semitic  and  Indo- 
European,  philologists,  who  are  professionally  exacting,  are  in 
the  main  quite  dubious.  Positive  evidence  seems  yet  to  be 
lacking.  Still,  the  territorial  continuity  of  the  three  speech 
groups  showing  the  trait  is  difficult  to  accept  as  mere  coinci¬ 
dence.  In  a  parallel  case  in  the  realm  of  culture  history,  a 
common  source  would  be  accepted  as  highly  probable.  Even 
Hottentot  has  been  considered  a  remote  Semitic-Hamitic  off¬ 
shoot,  largely,  it  is  true,  because  of  the  very  fact  that  it  ex¬ 
presses  gender.  Philologists,  accordingly,  may  consider  the  case 
still  open;  but  it  is  at  least  conceivable  that  the  phenome¬ 
non  goes  back  to  a  single  origin  in  these  four  Old  World 
stocks. 

Yet  no  stretch  will  account  for  sex  gender  in  the  three 
•  American  languages  as  due  to  contact  influence  or  diffusion,  nor 
relate  these  tongues  to  the  Old  World  ones.  Clearly  here  is  a 
case  of  independent  origin  or  parallel  “invention.”  Chinook 
and  Coast  Salish,  indeed,  are  in  contiguity,  and  one  may  there¬ 
fore  have  taken  up  the  trait  in  imitation  of  the  other.  But 
Porno  lies  well  to  the  south  and  its  affiliations  run  still  farther 


LANGUAGE 


121 


south.  Here  sex  gender  is  obviously  an  independent,  secondary, 
and  rather  recent  growth  in  the  grammar. 

In  short,  it  remains  doubtful  whether  sex  gender  originated 
three  or  four  or  five  or  six  times  among  these  seven  language 
stocks ;  but  it  evidently  originated  repeatedly. 

Other  traits  crop  out  the  world  over  in  much  the  same  man¬ 
ner.  A  dual,  for  instance,  is  found  in  Indo-European,  Malayo- 
Polynesian,  Eskimo,  and  a  number  of  other  American  languages. 
The  distinction  between  inclusive  and  exclusive  ive — you  and  I 
as  opposed  to  lie  and  I — is  made  in  Malayo-Polynesian,  Hot¬ 
tentot,  Iroquois,  Uto-Aztecan. 

A  true  nominative  case-ending,  such  as  Latin  and  the  other 
varieties  of  Indo-European  evince,  is  an  exceedingly  specialized 
formation ;  yet  is  found  in  the  Maidu  language  of  California. 
Articles,  in  regard  to  which  Indo-European .  varies,  Latin  for 
instance  being  without,  while  its  Romance  daughter  tongues 
have  developed  them,  recur  in  Semitic,  in  Polynesian,  and  in 
several  groups  of  American  languages,  such  as  Siouan  and 
Hokan.  The  growth  in  Romance  is  significant  because  of  its 
historicity,  and  because  it  was  surely  not  due  to  imitation  of  an 
unrelated  language.  That  is,  French  developed  its  articles  inde¬ 
pendently  and  secondarily;  a  fact  that  makes  it  probable  that 
many  languages  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  whose  history  we 
do  not  know,  developed  theirs  in  a  parallel  manner,  as  a  product 
of  wholly  internal  causes — “invented”  them,  in  short,  although 
wholly  unconsciously. 

A  trait  found  in  a  large  proportion  of  the  American  lan¬ 
guages  is  the  so-called  incorporation  of  the  object  pronoun 
(§51).  The  objective  pronoun,  or  an  element  representing  it, 
is  prefixed  or  suffixed  to  the  verb,  made  a  part  of  it.  The  process 
is  familiar  enough  to  us  from  Indo-European  so  far  as  the  sub¬ 
ject  is  concerned:  in  Latin  ama-s,  ama-t,  ama-nt,  the  suffixes 
express  “you,  he,  they”  and  pronouns  comparable  to  the  Eng¬ 
lish  ones — independent  words — are  usually  omitted.  The  -s  in 
he  love-s  is  the  sole  survival  of  the  process  in  modern  English. 
None  of  the  older  Indo-European  tongues  however  showed  an 
inclination  to  affix  similar  elements  for  the  objects,  although 
there  are  some  approaches  in  a  few  recent  languages  of  the 
family:  Spanish  diga-me,  “tell  me,”  and  ((mata-le,  “kill  him,” 


122 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


for  instance.  Semitic  on  the  other  hand,  and  Basque,  do  “  in¬ 
corporate  ”  objective  elements,  whereas  most  Asiatic  and  some 
American  languages  do  not.  Many  other  instances  of  parallel 
or  convergent  traits  could  be  cited. 

This  greater  frequency  of  parallel  developments  in  language 
than  in  culture  is  perhaps  in  part  due  to  easier  demonstrability 
in  the  field  of  speech.  But  in  the  main  the  higher  frequency 
seems  real.  Two  reasons  for  the  difference  suggest  themselves. 

First,  the  number  of  possibilities  is  small  in  language,  so  far 
as  structure  is  concerned.  The  categories  or  concepts  used  for 
classifying  and  for  the  indication  of  relations  are  rigorously 
limited,  and  so  are  the  means  of  expression.  The  distinctions 
expressed  by  gender,  for  instance,  may  refer  to  sex,  animateness, 
personality,  worth,  shape,  position,  or  possibly  one  or  two  other 
qualities;  but  there  they  end.  If  a  language  recognizes  gender 
at  all,  it  must  have  gender  of  one  of  these  few  types.  Conse¬ 
quently  there  is  some  probability  of  several  unconnected  lan¬ 
guages  sooner  or  later  happening  upon  the  same  type  of  gender. 
Similarly,  for  the  kinds  of  number,  and  of  case,  and  so  on,  that 
are  denotable.  These  larger  categories,  like  gender  and  number 
and  case,  are  not  numerous.  Then,  the  means  of  expressing 
such  relational  and  classificatory  concepts  are  limited.  There  is 
position  or  relative  order  of  words ;  compounding  of  them ; 
accretions  of  elements  to  stems,  namely  prefixes,  infixes,  and 
suffixes;  reduplication,  the  repetition  of  part  or  the  whole  of 
words ;  internal  changes  by  shift  of  vowel  or  accent  within 
words ;  and  therewith  the  types  of  grammatical  means  are  about 
exhausted.  The  number  of  possible  choices  is  so  small  that  the 
law  of  accidental  probability  must  cause  many  languages  to  hit 
upon  the  same  devices. 

A  second  reason  for  the  greater  frequency  of  parallelism  in 
language  is  that  structural  traits  appear  to  resist  diffusion  by 
imitation  to  a  considerable  degree.  Words  are  borrowed,  some¬ 
times  freely,  almost  always  to  some  degree,  between  contiguous 
languages ;  sounds  considerably  less ;  grammar  least  of  all.  That 
is,  linguistic  content  lends  itself  to  diffusion  readily,  linguistic 
form  with  difficulty. 

At  bottom,  the  same  holds  of  culture.  Specific  elements  of 
culture  or  groups  of  such  elements  diffuse  very  widely  at  times 


LANGUAGE 


123 


and  may  be  said  to  be  always  tending  to  diffuse :  the  wheel,  for 
instance,  smelting  of  metals,  the  crown  as  a  symbol  of  royalty, 
the  swastika,  Buddhism.  The  relations  of  elements  among 
themselves,  on  the  other  hand,  change  by  internal  growth  rather 
than  external  imitation.  Of  this  sort  are  the  relations  of  the 
classes  and  members  of  societies,  the  fervor  with  which  religion 
is  felt,  the  esteem  accorded  to  learning  or  wealth  or  tradition, 
the  inclination  toward  this  or  that  avenue  of  subsistence  or 
economic  development.  By  conquest  or  peaceful  pressure  or 
penetration  one  people  may  shatter  the  political  structure  or 
social  fabric  of  another,  may  undermine  its  conservatism,  may 
swerve  its  economic  habits.  But  it  is  difficult  to  find  cases  of 
one  people  adopting  such  tendencies  or  schemes  of  cultural 
organization  in  mere  imitation  of  the  example  of  another,  as  it 
will  adopt  specific  culture  content — the  wheel  or  crown  or  Bud¬ 
dhism,  for  instance — from  outside,  often  readily.  The  result  is 
that  culture  relations  or  forms  develop  spontaneously  or  from 
within  rather  than  as  a  result  of  direct  taking  over.  Also,  the 
types  of  culture  forms  being  limited  in  number,  the  same  type 
is  frequently  evolved  independently.  Thus  monarchical  and 
democratic  societies,  feudal  or  caste-divided  ones,  priest-ridden 
and  relatively  irreligious  ones,  expansive  and  mercantile  or  self- 
sufficient  and  agricultural  nations,  evolve  over  and  over  again. 
On  the  whole,  comparative  culture  history  more  often  deals 
with  the  specific  contents  of  civilization,  perhaps  because  events 
like  the  spread  of  an  invention  can  be  traced  more  definitely 
and  exactly  than  the  rather  complex  evolutions  of  say  two 
feudal  systems  can  be  compared.  The  result  is  that  diffusions 
seem  to  outweigh  parallels;  as  is  set  forth  in  several  of  the 
chapters  that  follow  this  one  (§105,  111,  127). 

In  comparative  linguistics,  on  the  other  hand,  interest  in¬ 
clines  to  the  side  of  form  rather  than  content;  hence  the  paral¬ 
lelisms  or  convergences  are  conspicuous.  If  as  much  attention 
were  generally  given  to  words  as  to  grammar,  and  if  they  could 
be  traced  in  their  prehistoric  or  unrecorded  wanderings  as  re¬ 
liably  as  many  culture  traits  have  been,  it  is  probable  that  dif¬ 
fusion  would  loom  larger  as  a  principle  shaping  human  speech. 
There  are  words  that  have  traveled  almost  as  far  as  the  objects 
they  denote :  tobacco  and  maize,  for  example.  And  the  absorp- 


124 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


tion  of  words  of  Latin  origin  into  English  was  as  extensive  as 
the  absorption  for  over  a  thousand  years  of  Latin,  Christian, 
and  Mediterranean  culture  by  the  English  people — went  on  as 
its  accompaniment  and  result. 

61.  Convergent  Languages 

Parallel  development  in  speech  form  is  not  restricted  to  traits 
like  sex  gender  and  object  incorporation.  It  may  affect  whole 
languages.  Chinese  a  long  time  ago  became  an  extremely 
analytical  or  “isolating”  language.  That  is,  it  lost  all  affixes 
and  internal  change.  Each  word  became  an  unalterable  unit. 
Sentences  are  built  up  by  putting  together  these  atoms.  Gram¬ 
matical  relations  are  expressed  by  the  order  of  words:  the  sub¬ 
ject  precedes  the  predicate,  for  instance.  Other  ideas  that  in 
many  languages  are  treated  formally,  such  as  the  plural  or 
person,  are  expressed  by  content  elements,  that  is,  by  other 
words :  many  for  the  plural,  separate  pronouns  instead  of  affixes 
for  person,  and  so  on.  The  uniformly  monosyllabic  words  of 
Chinese  accentuate  this  isolating  character,  which  however  does 
not  depend  intrinsically  upon  the  monosyllabism.  In  the  Indo- 
European  family,  as  already  mentioned,  there  has  been  a  drift 
in  the  same  direction  during  the  last  two  thousand  years.  This 
drift  toward  loss  of  formal  mechanisms  and  toward  the  expres¬ 
sion  of  grammar  by  material  elements  or  their  position  only,  has 
been  evident  in  all  branches  of  Indo-European,  but  has  been 
most  marked  in  English.  The  chief  remnants  of  the  older  in¬ 
flectional  processes  in  spoken  English  of  to-day  are  four  verb 
endings,  -s,  -ed,  -ing,  - en ;  three  noun  endings,  the  possessive 
-s  and  the  plurals  -s  and  -en,  the  latter  rare ;  the  case  ending 
-m  in  whom,  them ;  a  few  vowel  changes  for  plurals,  as  in  man — 
men,  and  goose — geese;  and  perhaps  two  hundred  vowel  changes 
in  verbs,  like  sing,  sang,  sung.  Compared  with  Latin,  Sanskrit, 
or  even  primitive  Germanic,  this  brief  list  represents  a  survival 
of  possibly  a  tenth  of  the  original  synthetic  inflectional  appa¬ 
ratus.  That  is,  English  has  gone  approximately  nine  tenths  of 
the  way  towards  attaining  a  grammar  of  the  Chinese  type.  A 
third  language  of  independent  origin,  Polynesian,  has  traveled 
about  the  same  distance  in  the  same  direction.  Superficially  it 


LANGUAGE 


125 


is  less  like  Chinese  in  that  it  remains  prevailingly  polysyllabic, 
but  more  like  it  in  having  undergone  heavy  phonetic  attrition. 
This  then  is  a  clear  case  of  entire  languages  converging  toward 
a  similar  type. 

Another  instance  is  found  in  the  remarkable  resemblances  in 
plan  of  structure  of  Indo-European,  especially  in  its  older 
forms,  and  of  the  Penutian  group  of  languages  in  native  Cali¬ 
fornia.  Common  to  these  two  families  are  an  apparatus  of 
similar  cases,  including  accusative,  genitive,  locative,  ablative, 
instrumental;  plural  by  suffix;  vowel  changes  in  the  verb  ac¬ 
cording  to  tense  and  mode ;  a  passive  and  several  participles  and 
modal  forms  expressed  by  suffixes;  pronouns  either  separate  or 
expressed  by  endings  fused  with  the  tense-modal  suffixes.  Thus, 
the  processes  which  make  English  sing ,  sang ,  sung ,  song ,  or  bind, 
bound,  band,  bond,  are  substantially  identical  with  those  which 
have  produced  in  Penutian  Yokuts  such  forms  as  shokud, 
pierce,  shukid-ji,  pierced,  sliokod,  perforation  or  hole,  shikid, 
piercer  or  arrow.  In  short,  most  of  the  traits  generally  cited 
as  constituting  the  Indo-European  languages  typically  inflec¬ 
tional,  reappear  in  Penutian,  and  of  course  independently  as 
regards  their  origin  and  history. 

These  would  appear  to  be  phenomena  comparable  to  the 
growth  of  feudalism  in  China  more  than  a  thousand  years  earlier 
than  in  Europe,  or  the  appearance  of  a  great  centrally  governed 
empire  in  Peru  similar  to  the  ancient  monarchies  of  the  Orient. 

62.  Unconscious  Factors  in  Language  and  Culture 

The  unceasing  processes  of  change  in  language  are  mainly 
unconscious.  The  results  of  the  change  may  rise  to  the  recog¬ 
nition  of  the  speakers;  the  act  of  change,  and  especially  its 
causes,  happen  without  awareness  of  those  through  whose  minds 
and  mouths  they  take  place.  This  holds  of  all  departments  of 
language :  the  phonetics,  the  structural  form,  largely  even  the 
meaning  of  words.  When  a  change  has  begun  to  creep  in,  it 
may  be  observed  and  be  consciously  resisted  on  the  ground  of 
being  incorrect  or  vulgar  or  foreign.  But  the  underlying  mo¬ 
tives  of  the  objectors  are  apparently  as  unknown  to  themselves 
as  the  impulses  of  the  innovators. 


126 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


If  this  view  seem  extreme,  it  can  easily  be  shown  that  the 
great  bulk  of  any  language  as  it  is,  apart  from  any  question 
of  change,  is  employed  unconsciously.  An  illiterate  person  will 
use  such  forms  as  child,  child's,  children,  children’s  with  the 
same  “correctness”  as  a  philologist,  yet  without  being  able  to 
give  an  explanation  of  the  grammatical  ideas  of  singularity  and 
plurality,  absoluteness  and  possession,  or  to  lay  down  rules  as 
to  the  manner  of  expression  of  these  ideas  in  English.  Gram¬ 
mar,  in  short,  exists  before  grammarians,  whose  legitimate  busi¬ 
ness  is  to  uncover  such  rules  as  are  already  there.  It  is  an 
obviously  hasty  thought  that  because  grammar  happens  to  be 
taught  in  schools,  speech  can  be  grammatical  only  through  such 
formal  teaching.  The  Sanskrit  and  Greek  and  Latin  languages 
had  their  declensions  and  conjugations  before  Hindu  and  Greek 
and  Roman  scholars  first  analyzed  and  described  them.  The 
languages  of  primitive  peoples  frequently  abound  with  compli¬ 
cated  forms  and  mechanisms  which  are  used  consistently  and 
applied  without  suspicion  of  their  existence.  It  is  much  as  the 
blood  went  round  in  our  bodies  quite  healthily  before  Harvey’s 
discovery  of  its  circulation. 

The  quality  of  unconsciousness  seems  not  to  be  a  trait  spe¬ 
cifically  limited  to  linguistic  causes  and  processes,  but  to  hold 
in  principle  of  culture  generally.  It  is  only  that  the  uncon¬ 
sciousness  pervades  speech  farther.  A  custom,  a  belief,  an  art, 
however  deep  down  its  springs,  sooner  or  later  rises  into  social 
consciousness.  It  then  seems  deliberate,  planned,  willed,  and  is 
construed  as  arising  from  conscious  motives  and  developing 
through  conscious  channels.  But  many  social  phenomena  can 
be  led  back  only  to  non-rational  and  obscure  motives:  the  wear¬ 
ing  of  silk  hats,  for  instance.  The  whole  class  of  changes  in 
dress  styles  spring  from  unconscious  causes.  Sleeves  and  skirts 
lengthen  or  shorten,  trousers  flare  or  tighten,  and  who  can  say 
why?  It  is  perhaps  possible  to  trace  a  new  fashion  to  Paris 
or  London,  and  to  a  particular  stratum  of  society  there.  But 
what  is  it  that  in  the  winter  of  a  particular  year  makes  every 
woman — or  man — of  a  certain  social  group  wear,  let  us  say,  a 
high  collared  coat,  or  a  shoe  that  does  not  come  above  the  ankle, 
and  the  next  year,  or  the  tenth  after,  the  reverse?  It  is  insuffi¬ 
cient  to  say  that  this  is  imitation  of  a  leader  of  fashion,  of  a 


LANGUAGE 


127 


professional  creator  of  style.  Why  does  the  group  follow  him 
and  think  the  innovation  attractive  and  correct  ?  A  year  earlier 
the  same  innovation  would  have  appeared  senseless  or  extrava¬ 
gant  to  the  same  group.  A  year  after,  it  appeals  as  belated  and 
ridiculous,  and  every  one  wonders  that  style  was  so  tasteless 
so  short  a  time  ago. 

Evidently  the  aesthetic  emotions  evoked  by  fashions  are  largely 
beyond  the  control  of  both  individuals  and  groups.  It  is  difficult 
to  say  where  the  creative  and  imitative  impulses  of  fashion 
come  from ;  which,  inasmuch  as  the  impulses  obviously  reside 
somewhere  in  human  minds,  means  that  they  spring  from  the 
unconscious  portions  of  the  mind.  Evidently  then  our  justi¬ 
fication  of  the  dress  styles  we  happen  at  any  time  to  be  follow¬ 
ing,  our  pronouncing  them  artistic  or  comfortable  or  sensible 
or  what  not,  is  secondary.  A  low  shoe  may  be  more  convenient 
than  a  high  one,  a  brown  one  more  practical  than  a  black  one. 
That  that  is  not  the  reason  which  determines  the  wearing  of  low 
brown  shoes  when  they  are  customarily  worn,  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  at  other  times  high  black  ones  are  put  on  by  every  one. 
The  reasons  that  can  be  and  are  given  are  so  changeable  and 
inconsistent  that  they  evidently  are  not  the  real  reasons,  but  the 
false  secondary  reasons  that  are  best  distinguished  as  rationaliza¬ 
tions.  Excuses,  we  should  call  them  with  reference  to  individual 
conduct. 

What  applies  to  fashion  holds  also  of  manners,  of  morals,  and 
of  many  religious  observances.  Why  we  defer  to  women  by 
rising  in  their  presence  and  passing  through  a  door  behind  them ; 
why  we  refrain  from  eating  fish  with  a  knife  or  drinking  soup 
out  of  a  two  handled  cup,  though  drinking  it  from  a  single 
handled  one  is  legitimate ;  why  we  do  not  marry  close  kin ;  why 
we  remove  our  hats  in  the  presence  of  the  deity  or  his  emblems 
but  would  feel  it  impious  to  pull  off  our  shoes ;  all  the  thousands 
of  prescriptions  and  taboos  of  which  these  are  examples,  possess 
an  unconscious  motivation. 

Such  cases  are  also  illustrations  of  what  is  known  as  the 
relativity  of  morals.  The  Jew  sets  his  hat  on  to  worship,  the 
Oriental  punctiliously  slips  out  of  his  shoes.  Some  people 
forbid  the  marriage  of  the  most  remote  relatives,  others  en¬ 
courage  that  of  first  cousins,  still  others  permit  the  union  of 


128 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


uncle  and  niece.  It  would  seem  that  all  social  phenomena  which 
can  he  brought  under  this  principle  of  relativity  of  standard 
are  unconsciously  grounded.  This  in  turn  implies  the  uncon¬ 
scious  causation  of  the  mores,  those  products  of  the  social  en¬ 
vironment  in  which  one  is  reared  and  which  one  accepts  as  the 
ultimate  authority  of  conduct.  As  mores  are  those  folkways  or 
customs  to  which  an  emotional  coloring  has  become  attached,  so 
that  adherence  to  the  custom  or  departure  from  it  arouses  a 
feeling  respectively  of  approval  or  disapproval,  it  is  evident 
that  the  origin  of  folkways  generally  is  also  unconscious,  since 
there  seems  no  reason  why  the  emotions  or  ethical  affect  envelop¬ 
ing  a  customary  action  should  incline  more  than  the  custom  itself 
to  spring  up  unconsciously. 

It  has  become  recognized  that  the  average  man’s  convictions 
on  social  matters  remote  from  him  are  not  developed  through 
examination  of  evidence  and  exercise  of  reason,  but  are  taken 
over,  by  means  of  what  is  sometimes  denominated  the  “herd 
instinct,”  from  the  society  or  period  in  which  he  happens  to 
have  been  born  and  nurtured.  His  belief  in  democracy,  in 
monotheism,  in  his  right  to  charge  profit  and  his  freedom  to 
change  residence  or  occupation,  have  such  origin.  In  many 
instances  it  is  easy  to  render  striking  proof  of  the  proposition : 
as  in  the  problems  of  high  tariff,  or  the  Athanasian  creed,  or 
compulsory  vaccination,  which  are  so  technical  or  intricate  as 
to  be  impossible  of  independent  solution  by  evidence  and  argu¬ 
ment  by  the  majority  of  men.  Time  alone  would  forbid :  we 
should  starve  while  making  the  necessary  research.  And  the 
difference  between  the  average  man’s  attitude  on  such  difficult 
points  and  the  highly  gifted  individual’s  attitude  toward  them 
or  even  toward  simpler  problems,  would  seem  to  be  one  of 
degree  only. 

Even  on  the  material  sides  of  culture,  unconscious  motiva¬ 
tion  plays  a  part.  In  the  propulsion  of  ships,  oars  and  sails 
fluctuated  as  the  prevalent  means  down  almost  to  the  period  of 
steam  vessels.  It  would  be  impossible  to  say  that  one  method 
was  logically  superior  to  the  other,  that  it  was  recognized  as 
such  and  then  rationally  adhered  to.  The  history  of  warfare 
shows  similar  changes  between  throwing  and  thrusting  spears, 
stabbing  and  hewing  swords,  light  and  heavy  armor.  The 


LANGUAGE 


129 


Greeks  and  Macedonians  in  the  days  of  their  military  supe¬ 
riority  lengthened  their  lances  and  held  them.  It  no  doubt 
seemed  for  a  time  that  a  definite  superiority  had  been  proved 
for  this  type  of  weapon  over  the  shorter,  hurled  javelin.  Then 
the  Romans,  as  part  of  their  legionary  tactics,  reverted  to  the 
javelin  and  broke  the  Macedonian  phalanx  with  their  pilum. 
But  the  Middle  Ages  again  fell  back  on  the  thrusting  lance. 
The  Greeks  successfully  developed  heavy  armor,  until  Athenian 
light  armed  troops  overcame  Spartan  lioplites.  The  Macedonians 
reintroduced  heavy  armament,  which  held  sway  in  Europe  until 
after  the  prevalence  of  firearms.  But  the  last  few  years  have 
brought  the  rebirth  of  the  helmet. 

These  fashions  in  tools  and  practical  appliances  do  not  alter 
as  fast  as  modern  dress  styles,  and  part  of  their  causes  can 
often  be  recognized.  Yet  there  seems  no  essential  difference,  as 
regards  consciousness,  between  the  fluctuation  of  fashions  in 
weapons — or  navigation  or  cooking  or  travel  or  house  building 
— and,  let  us  say,  the  fluctuation  of  mode  between  soft  and  stiff 
hats  or  high  and  low  shoes.  It  may  be  admitted  to  have  been 
the  open  array  of  the  legion  that  led  to  the  pilum ;  the  bullet 
that  induced  the  abandonment  of  the  breast  plate,  shrapnel 
that  caused  the  reintroduction  of  the  helmet.  But  these  initiat¬ 
ing  factors  were  not  deliberate  as  regards  the  effects  that  came 
in  their  train;  and  in  their  turn  they  were  the  effects  of  more 
remote  causes.  The  whole  chain  of  development  in  such  cases  is 
devious,  unforeseen,  mainly  unforeseeable.  At  most  there  is 
recognition  of  what  is  happening;  in  general  the  recognition 
seems  to  become  full  only  after  the  change  in  tool  or  weapon  or 
industrial  process  has  become  completed  and  is  perhaps  already 
being  undermined  once  more. 

Of  course  purely  stylistic  alterations — and  linguistic  innova¬ 
tions — also  possess  their  causes.  When  the  derby  hat  or  the 
pronoun  thou  becomes  obsolete,  there  is  a  reason,  whether  or  not 
we  know  it  or  do  not  see  it  clearly. 

The  common  causal  element  in  all  these  changes  may  be  called 
a  shift  in  social  values.  Perhaps  practical  chemical  experience 
has  grown,  and  gunpowder  explodes  more  satisfactorily;  or  an 
economic  readjustment  has  made  it  possible  to  equip  more  sol¬ 
diers  with  guns.  The  first  result  is  a  greater  frequency  of 


130 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


bullet  penetrations  in  battle;  the  next,  the  abandonment  of  the 
breast  plate.  Increasing  wealth  or  schooling  or  city  residence 
makes  indiscriminate  familiarity  of  manners  seem  less  desirable 
than  at  an  earlier  period:  brusque  thou  begins  to  yield  to  in¬ 
direct  plural  you.  Or  again,  new  verbs,  all  of  regular  conjuga¬ 
tion  like  love ,  loved,  are  formed  in  English  or  imported  from 
French  until  their  number  outweighs  that  of  the  ancient  ir¬ 
regular  ones  like  sing,  sang.  A  standardizing  tendency  is 
thereby  set  going — “analogizing”  is  the  technical  term  of  the 
philologist — which  begins  to  turn  irregular  verbs  into  regular 
ones :  dived  replaces  dove,  just  as  lenger  becomes  longer,  and 
toon  becomes  toes.  There  is  the  same  sort  of  causality  in  one 
of  these  phenomena  as  in  another.  The  individual  or  community 
that  leaves  off  the  breast  plate  or  stiff  hat  is  more  likely  to  be 
aware  that  it  is  performing  the  act  than  the  one  that  leaves  off 
saying  toon  or  thou.  But  it  does  not  seem  that  there  is  an 
essential  difference  of  process.  Linguistic  and  aesthetic  changes 
are  most  fully  unconscious,  social  ones  next,  material  and  eco¬ 
nomic  ones  perhaps  least.  But  in  all  cases  change  or  innova¬ 
tion  is  due  to  a  shift  of  values  that  are  broader  than  the  single 
phenomenon  in  question,  and  that  are  held  to  impulsively  in¬ 
stead  of  reasonably.  That  is  why  all  social  creations — institu¬ 
tions,  beliefs,  codes,  styles,  speech  forms — prove  on  impartial 
analysis  to  be  full  of  inconsistencies  and  irrationalities.  They 
have  sprung  not  from  weighed  or  reasoned  choices  but  from 
impulsive  desires  and  emotionally  colored  habits. 

The  foregoing  discussion  may  be  summarized  as  follows.  Lin¬ 
guistic  phenomena  and  processes  are  on  the  whole  more  deeply 
unconscious  than  cultural  ones,  without  however  differing  in 
principle.  In  both  language  and  culture,  content  is  more 
readily  imparted  and  assimilated  than  form  and  enters  farther 
into  consciousness.  Organization  or  structure  in  both  cases  takes 
place  according  to  unconscious  patterns,  such  as  grammatical 
categories,  social  standards,  political  or  economic  points  of 
view,  religious  or  intellectual  assumptions.  These  patterns 
attain  recognition  only  in  a  late  stage  of  sophistication,  and 
even  then  continue  to  alter  and,  to  be  influential  without  con¬ 
scious  control.  The  number  of  such  linguistic  and  social  pat- 


LANGUAGE 


131 


terns  being  limited,  they  tend  to  be  approximately  repeated 
without  historic  connection.  Partially  similar  combinations  of 
such  patterns  sometimes  recur,  producing  languages  or  cultures 
of  similar  type.  But  established  patterns,  and  still  more  their 
combinations,  replace  each  other  with  difficulty.  Their  spread 
therefore  takes  place  through  the  integral  substitution  of  one 
language  or  culture  for  another,  rather  than  by  piecemeal  ab¬ 
sorption.  This  is  in  contrast  to  the  specific  elements  of  which 
language  and  culture  consist — individual  words,  mechanical  de¬ 
vices,  institutional  symbols,  particular  religious  ideas  or  actions, 
and  the  like.  These  elements  absorb  and  diffuse  readily.  They 
are  therefore  imitated  more  often  than  they  are  reinvented.  But 
linguistic  and  cultural  patterns  or  structures  growing  up  spon¬ 
taneously  may  possess  more  general  resemblance  than  historic 
connection. 


63.  Linguistic  and  Cultural  Standards 

It  does  not  follow  that  because  social  usages  lack  a  rational 
basis,  they  are  therefore  unworthy  of  being  followed,  or  that 
standards  of  conduct  need  be  renounced  because  they  are  rela¬ 
tive,  that  is,  unconsciously  founded  and  changing.  The  natural 
inclination  of  men  being  to  regard  their  standards  of  taste, 
behavior,  and  social  arrangement  as  wholly  reasonable,  perfect, 
and  fixed,  there  follows  a  first  inclination  to  regard  these  stand¬ 
ards  as  valueless  as  soon  as  their  emotionality  and  variability 
have  been  recognized.  But  such  a  tendency  is  only  a  negative 
reaction  against  the  previous  illusion  when  this  has  disappointed 
by  crumbling.  The  reaction  is  therefore  in  a  sense  a  further 
result  of  the  illusion.  Once  the  fundamental  and  automatic 
assumption  of  fixity  and  inherent  value  of  social  patterns  has 
been  given  up,  and  it  is  recognized  that  the  motive  power  of 
behavior  in  man  as  in  the  other  animals  is  affective  and  uncon¬ 
scious,  there  is  nothing  in  institutions  and  codes  to  quarrel  with. 
They  are  neither  despicable  nor  glorious;  no  more  deserving 
in  virtue  of  their  existence  to  be  uprooted  and  demolished  than 
to  be  defended  as  absolute  and  eternal.  In  some  form  or  other, 
they  are  inevitable;  and  the  particular  form  which  they  take 


132 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


at  this  time  or  that  place  is  always  tolerably  well  founded,  in 
the  sense  of  being  adapted  with  fair  success,  or  having  been  but 
recently  well  adapted,  to  the  conditions  of  natural  and  social 
environment  of  the  group  which  holds  the  institution,  code,  or 
standard. 

That  this  is  a  sane  attitude  is  more  easily  shown  in  the  field 
of  language  than  of  culture,  because,  language  being  primarily 
a  mechanism  or  means,  whereas  in  culture  ends  or  purposes  tend 
more  to  obtrude,  it  is  easier  to  view  linguistic  phenomena  dis¬ 
passionately.  Grammars  and  dictionaries,  for  instance,  are  evi¬ 
dently  the  result  of  self-consciousness  arising  about  speech  which 
has  previously  been  mainly  unconscious.  They  may  be  roughly 
compared  to  social  formulations  like  law  codes  or  written  con¬ 
stitutions  or  philosophic  systems  or  religious  dogmas,  which  are 
also  representations  of  usages  or  beliefs  already  in  existence. 
When  grammarians  stigmatize  expressions  like  ain’t  or  them 
cows  or  he  don’t  as  “wrong, ”  they  are  judging  an  innovation, 
or  one  of  several  established  conflicting  usages,  by  a  standard 
of  correctness  that  seems  to  them  absolute  and  permanent.  As 
a  matter  of  actuality,  the  condemned  form  may  or  may  not  suc¬ 
ceed  in  becoming  established.  He  don’t ,  for  example,  might 
attain  to  correctness  in  time,  although  ain’t  is  perhaps  less 
likely  to  become  legitimized,  and  them  cows  to  have  still  smaller 
prospect  of  recognition.  That  a  form  departs  from  the  canon 
of  to-day  of  course  no  more  proves  that  it  will  be  accepted  in 
future  than  that  it  will  not.  What  is  certain  is  that  if  it  wins 
sufficient  usage,  it  will  also  win  sanction,  and  will  become  part 
of  the  standard  of  its  time. 

Linguistic  instances  like  these  differ  little  if  at  all  in  prin¬ 
ciple,  in  their  involved  psychology,  from  the  finding  of  the  Su¬ 
preme  Court  that  a  certain  legislative  enactment  is  unconstitu¬ 
tional  and  therefore  void ;  or  from  the  decision  of  a  denomina¬ 
tion  that  dancing  or  playing  golf  on  Sunday  is  wicked ;  or  from 
the  widespread  sentiment  that  breaking  an  unpopular  law  like 
that  on  liquor  prohibition  is  morally  justifiable.  The  chief 
point  of  divergence  would  seem  to  be  that  a  court  is  a  consti¬ 
tuted  body  endowed  with  an  authority  which  is  not  paralleled 
on  the  linguistic  side,  at  any  rate  in  Anglo-Saxon  countries; 
although  the  Latin  nations  possess  Academies  whose  dicta  on 


LANGUAGE  133 

correctness  of  speech  enjoy  a  moral  authority  approximating  the 
verdicts  of  a  high  court. 

It  is  also  of  interest  to  remember  that  the  power  of  nullifying 
legislation  was  not  specifically  granted  the  Supreme  Court  by 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  but  that  the  practice 
grew  up  gradually,  quite  like  a  speech  innovation  which  becomes 
established.  Certain  elements  in  the  American  population  look 
upon  this  power  as  undesirable  and  therefore  take  satisfaction 
in  pointing  out  its  unsanctioned  origin.  The  majority  on  the 
other  hand  feel  that  the  situation  on  the  whole  works  out  well, 
and  that  a  Supreme  Court  with  its  present  powers  is  better  than 
the  risk  of  a  Court  without  power.  Still,  it  remains  curiously 
illogical  that  the  preservation  of  the  Constitution  should  take 
place  partly  through  the  extra-constitutional  functioning  of  a 
constitutional  body.  In  principle  such  a  case  is  similar  to  that 
of  grammarians  who  at  the  same  time  lay  down  a  rule  and 
exceptions  to  the  rule,  because  the  contradictory  usages  happen 
to  be  actually  established. 

Codes,  dogmas,  and  grammars  are  thus  normally  reflections 
rather  than  causes.  Such  influence  as  they  have  is  mainly  in 
outward  crystallization.  They  produce  a  superficial  appearance 
of  permanence.  In  the  field  of  speech,  it  is  easy  to  recognize 
that  it  is  not  grammarians  that  make  languages,  but  languages 
that  make  grammarians.  The  analogous  process  evidently  holds 
for  culture.  Lawgivers,  statesmen,  religious  leaders,  discov¬ 
erers,  inventors,  therefore  only  seem  to  shape  civilization.  The 
deep-seated,  blind,  and  intricate  forces  that  shape  culture,  also 
mold  the  so-called  creative  leaders  of  society  as  essentially  as 
they  mold  the  mass  of  humanity.  Progress,  so  far  as  it  can 
objectively  be  considered  to  be  such,  is  something  that  makes 
itself.  We  do  not  make  it.  Our  customary  conviction  to  the 
contrary  is  probably  the  result  of  an  unconscious  desire  not  to 
realize  our  individual  impotence  as  regards  the  culture  we  live 
in.  Social  influence  of  a  sort  we  do  have  as  individuals.  But 
it  is  a  personal  influence  on  the  fortune  and  careers  of  other 
individual  members  of  society,  and  is  concerned  largely  with 
aims  of  personal  security,  relative  dominance,  or  affection  among 
ourselves.  This  obviously  is  a  different  thing  from  the  exertion 
of  influence  on  the  form  or  content  of  civilization  as  such. 


134 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


64.  Rapidity  op  Linguistic  Change 

The  rate  of  change  in  language  is  circumscribed  by  the  prin¬ 
ciples  of  linguistic  causality  that  have  been  discussed,  but  it 
remains  an  obscure  subject  in  detail.  The  opinion  often  held 
that  unwritten  languages  necessarily  alter  faster  than  written 
ones,  or  that  those  of  savages  are  less  stable  than  the  tongues 
of  civilized  men,  is  mainly  a  naive  reflection  of  our  sense  of 
superiority.  It  contravenes  the  principles  just  referred  to  and 
is  not  supported  by  evidence.  Occasional  stories  that  a  primi¬ 
tive  tribe  after  a  generation  or  two  was  found  speaking  an 
almost  made-over  language  are  unconscious  fabrications  due  to 
'  preconception  and  supported  by  hasty  accpiaintance,  faulty 
records,  misunderstanding,  or  perhaps  change  of  inhabitants. 
Nahuatl,  the  language  of  the  Aztecs,  has  probably  changed  less 
in  four  hundred  years  than  Spanish;  Quechua,  that  of  the 
Incas,  no  more.  English  has  apparently  altered  more  than  any 
of  the  three  in  the  same  period.  Dozens  of  native  tongues,  some 
of  them  from  wholly  rude  peoples,  were  written  down  in  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  by  Spanish  and  other 
priests,  and  in  most  instances  the  grammars  and  dictionaries 
prove  to  be  usable  to-day. 

Cultural  alteration  would  appear  to  work  toward  speech 
change  chiefly  in  certain  ways.  New  things  need  new  names; 
new  acts  mean  new  thoughts  and  new  ideas  require  new  words. 
These  may  be  imported;  or  they  may  be  made  out  of  elements 
already  in  the  language;  or  old  words  may  undergo  a  shift  of 
meaning.  In  any  event,  the  change  is  mainly  on  the  side  of 
vocabulary.  The  sounds  of  a  language  are  generally  much  less 
affected;  its  plan  of  structure  least  of  all.  The  introduction  of 
a  new  religion  or  development  of  a  new  form  of  government 
among  a  people  need  not  be  accompanied  by  changes  in  the 
grammar  of  their  speech,  and  usually  are  not,  as  abundant  his¬ 
torical  examples  prove. 

While  the  causes  of  grammatical  innovation  are  far  from 
clear,  contact  with  alien  tongues  is  certainly  a  factor  in  some 
degree.  An  isolated  off-shoot  of  a  linguistic  group  is  generally 
more  specialized,  and  therefore  presumably  more  altered,  than 
the  main  body  of  dialects  of  the  family.  The  reason  is  that  the 


LANGUAGE 


135 


latter,  maintaining  abundant  reciprocal  contact,  tend  to  steady 
one  another,  or  if  they  swerve,  to  do  so  in  the  same  direction. 
The  speakers  of  the  branch  that  is  geographically  detached, 
however,  come  to  know  quite  different  grammars  so  far  as  they 
learn  languages  other  than  their  native  one,  and  such  knowledge 
seems  to  act  as  an  unconscious  stimulus  toward  the  growth  of 
new  forms  and  uses.  It  is  not  that  grammatical  concepts  are 
often  imitated  outright  or  grammatical  elements  borrowed.  Ac¬ 
quaintance  with  a  language  of  different  type  seems  rather  to  act 
as  a  ferment  which  sets  new  processes  going. 

It  is  in  the  nature  of  the  case  that  direct  specific  evidence  of 
changes  of  this  character  is  hard  to  secure.  But  comparison  of 
related  languages  or  dialects  with  reference  to  their  location 
frequently  shows  that  the  dialects  which  are  geographically 
situated  among  strange  languages  are  the  most  differentiated. 
This  holds  of  Abyssinian  in  the  Semitic  family,  of  Brahui  in 
Dravidian,  of  Singhalese  in  the  Indie  branch  of  Indo-European, 
of  Hopi  and  Tiibatulabal  in  Shoshonean,  of  Arapaho  and 
Blaekfoot  in  Algonkin,  of  Huastec  in  Mayan. 

But  it  is  also  likely  that  languages  differ  among  each  other 
in  their  susceptibility  to  change,  and  that  the  same  language 
differs  in  successive  periods  of  its  history.  It  is  rather  to  be 
anticipated  that  a  language  may  be  in  a  phase  now  of  rapid 
and  then  of  retarded  metabolism,  so  to  speak;  that  at  one  stage 
its  tendency  may  be  toward  breaking  down  and  absorption,  at 
another  toward  a  more  rigid  setting  of  its  forms.  Similarly, 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  languages  of  certain  types  of 
structure  are  inherently  more  plastic  than  others.  At  any  rate, 
actual  differences  in  rate  of  change  are  known.  The  Indo- 
European  languages,  for  instance,  have  perhaps  without  excep¬ 
tion  altered  more  in  the  three  thousand  years  of  historic  record 
than  the  Semitic  ones.  And  so  in  native  America,  while  con¬ 
temporary  documentary  record  is  of  course  wanting,  the  degree 
of  differentiation  within  the  twTo  stocks  suggests  strongly  that 
Athabascan  is  more  tenaciously  conservative  than  Siouan. 

There  are  also  notable  differences  in  the  readiness  to  borrow 
words  ready-made.  English  is  distinctly  more  hospitable  in  this 
regard  than  German,  which  tends  rather  to  express  a  new  con¬ 
cept  by  a  new  formation  of  old  elements.  The  South  American 


136 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


languages  appear  to  have  borrowed  more  words  from  one  an¬ 
other  than  those  of  North  America.  In  this  matter  the  type  of 
language  is  probably  of  some  influence,  yet  on  the  whole  cul¬ 
tural  factors  perhaps  predominate.  The  direction  and  degree 
of  cultural  absorption  seem  to  determine  the  absorption  of 
words  to  a  considerable  measure.  Here  writing  is  certainly 
potent.  The  Latin  and  French  element  in  English,  the  Sanskrit 
and  Arabic  element  in  the  Malaysian  languages,  were  brought 
in  to  a  large  extent  by  writing,  and  would  evidently  have  re¬ 
mained  much  smaller  if  the  historic  contacts  had  been  wholly 
oral.  This  is  perhaps  the  most  important  way  in  which  writing 
exerts  influence  on  the  development  of  spoken  language;  an 
influence  which  in  other  respects  is  usually  overestimated. 


CHAPTER  VI 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  HUMAN  CIVILIZATION 

65.  Fossils  of  the  body  and  of  the  mind. — 66.  Stone  and  metals. — 67. 
The  Old  and  the  New  Stone  Ages.-68.  The  Eolitliic  Age. — 69.  The  Paleo¬ 
lithic  Age:  duration,  climate,  animals. — 70.  Subdivisions  of  the  Paleo¬ 
lithic. — 71.  Human  racial  types  in  the  Paleolithic. — 72.  Paleolithic  flint 
implements. — 73.  Other  materials:  bone  and  horn. — 74.  Dress. — 75. 
Harpoons  and  weapons. — 76.  Wooden  implements. — 77.  Fire. — 78.  Houses. 
— 79.  Religion. — 80.  Paleolithic  art. — 81.  Summary  of  advance  in  the 
Paleolithic. 


65.  Fossils  of  the  Body  and  of  the  Mind 

The  discovery  of  fossils  has  yielded  some  idea  of  the  history 
of  the  human  body  during  the  past  million  years.  The  evidence 
is  far  from  complete,  but  there  is  enough  to  prove  a  develop¬ 
ment  much  as  might  be  expected  under  the  hypothesis  of  evo¬ 
lution.  To  some  extent  fossils  also  afford  an  insight  into  the 
development  of  the  human  mind.  The  capacity  of  a  skull  gives 
the  size  of  the  brain.  The  interior  surface  of  the  skull  cor¬ 
responds  to  the  outer  surface  of  the  brain.  In  this  way  some 
slight  knowledge  has  been  gained  of  the  development  in  ancient 
types  of  man  of  the  convolutions  and  centers  of  the  brain  sur¬ 
face  with  which  mental  activity  is  associated.  Even  limb  bones 
yield  indirect  indications.  A  straight  thigh  means  an  erect  pos¬ 
ture  of  the  body,  with  the  arms  no  longer  used  for  locomotion. 
Released  from  this  service,  they  are  freed  for  other  purposes, 
such  as  grasping,  handling,  and  various  forms  of  what  we  call 
work.  But  a  hand  adapted  for  work  would  be  useless  without 
an  intelligence  to  direct  its  operations.  Thus  the  bones  of  our 
precursors  provide  suggestions  as  to  the  degree  of  development 
of  their  minds.  The  suggestions  are  sketchy  and  incomplete, 
but  they  are  worth  something. 

•  A  second  line  of  evidence  is  fuller.  When  a  human  or  pre¬ 
human  hand  has  made  any  article,  one  can  judge  from  that 

article  what  its  purpose  is  likely  to  have  been,  how  it  was  used, 

137 


138 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


how  much  intelligence  that  use  involved,  what  degree  of  skill 
was  necessary  to  manufacture  the  article.  All  such  artifacts — 
tools,  weapons,  or  anything  constructed — are  a  reflection  of  the 
degree  of  “ culture”  or  civilization,  elementary  or  advanced, 
possessed  by  the  beings  who  made  them. 

On  the  whole  the  evidence  to  be  got  from  artifacts  as  to 
the  degree  of  advancement  of  their  makers  or  users  is  greater 
than  the  information  derivable  from  the  structure  of  skeletons. 
A  large  brain  does  not  always  imply  high  intelligence.  Even 
a  much  convoluted  brain  surface  may  accompany  a  mediocre 
mind.  In  other  words,  the  correlation  between  body  and  mind 
has  not  been  worked  out  with  accuracy.  On  the  other  hand  an 
advanced  type  of  tool  necessarily  implies  more  skill  in  its  use, 
and  therefore  a  decided  development  of  the  use  of  intelligence. 
Similarly,  if  one  finds  nothing  but  simple  tools  occurring  among 
any  past  or  present  people,  we  may  be  sure  that  their  civiliza¬ 
tion  and  the  training  of  their  minds  have  remained  backward. 

It  is  true  that  one  cannot  always  infer  from  a  particular 
manufactured  object  the  mentality  of  the  particular  person  who 
owned  and  used  it.  An  imbecile  may  come  into  possession  of 
a  good  knife  and  even  possess  some  ability  in  using  it.  But 
he  can  acquire  the  knife  only  if  there  are  other  individuals 
in  his  community  or  time  who  know  how  to  smelt  iron  and  forge 
steel.  In  short,  even  a  single  jackknife  is  proof  that  human 
ingenuity  has  progressed  to  the  point  of  making  important  dis¬ 
coveries,  and  that  arts  of  relatively  high  order  are  being  prac¬ 
tised.  In  this  way  a  solitary  implement,  if  its  discovery  is 
thoroughly  authenticated,  may  suffice  to  establish  a  relatively 
high  or  low  degree  of  civilization  for  a  prehistoric  period  or  a 
vanished  race. 

An  implement  manufactured  by  human  hands  of  the  past  is 
of  course  different  from  an  actual  fossil  of  a  former  human 
being,  and  it  is  always  necessary  to  distinguish  between  the 
two.  The  one  is  something  made  by  a  human  being  and  in 
some  measure  reflecting  the  development  of  his  intelligence ;  the 
other  something  left  over  or  preserved  from  the  human  body 
itself.  Nevertheless,  in  a  metaphorical  sense,  the  implements 
of  the  past  may  well  be  spoken  of  as  the  fossils  of  civilization. 
They  are  only  its  fragments,  but  they  allow  us  to  reconstruct 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  HUMAN  CIVILIZATION  139 


the  mode  of  life  of  prehistoric  peoples  and  utterly  forgotten 
nations,  in  much  the  same  way  as  the  geologist  and  the  palaeon¬ 
tologist  reconstruct  from  true  fossils  the  forms  of  life  that 
existed  on  the  earth  or  in  the  seas  millions  of  years  ago. 

There  is  even  a  further  parallel.  Just  as  the  geologist  knows 
that  one  fossil  is  older  or  younger  than  another  from  its  posi¬ 
tion  in  the  earth’s  crust  or  the  stratum  in  which  it  was  laid 
down,  so  the  student  of  the  beginnings  of  human  civilization 
knows  that  the  deposit  at  the  bottom  of  a  cave  must  be  more 
ancient  than  the  refuse  at  the  top.  He  calls  in  the  geologist  to 
tell  him  the  age  of  a  glacial  deposit  or  of  a  river  terrace,  and 
thus  he  may  learn  that,  of  two  types  of  implements  found  at 
different  places  or  levels,  one  is  so  many  thousands  of  years  or 
geological  periods  older  than  the  other.  In  the  long  run,  too,  the 
older  implements  prove  to  be  the  simpler.  Thus  archaeologists 
have  succeeded  in  working  out  an  evolution  of  civilization  which 
parallels  rather  neatly  the  evolution  of  life  forms.  This  evolu¬ 
tion  of  human  mental  operations  as  it  is  reflected  in  the  artifacts 
preserved  from  the  lowest  and  earliest  strata  of  civilization  is 
the  subject  of  the  present  chapter. 

There  is  another  way  in  which  the  evidence  on  the  two  lines 
of  evolution  is  similar :  its  incompleteness.  The  geological  record 
has  been  compared  to  a  book  from  which  whole  chapters  are 
missing;  of  others,  but  stray  leaves  remain;  and  only  now  and 
then  have  consecutive  pages  been  preserved  unmutilated.  Hu¬ 
manity  has  always  been  so  much  less  populous  than  the  re¬ 
mainder  of  the  animal  kingdom,  especially  in  its  earlier  stages, 
that  the  number  of  individuals  whose  bones  have  been  preserved 
as  fossils  is  infinitely  smaller.  The  result  is  that  we  account 
ourselves  fortunate  in  having  been  able  to  assemble  six  or  seven 
not  quite  complete  skeletons,  and  fragmentary  portions  of  two 
or  three  dozen  other  individuals,  of  the  Neandertal  race  which 
inhabited  western  Europe  for  thousands  of  years.  For  still 
earlier  races  or  species  of  man  the  actual  data  are  even  scantier. 
Knowledge  of  so  fundamental  a  form  as  Pithecanthropus,  the 
earliest  of  the  antecedents  of  man  yet  known,  rests  on  two  bones 
and  two  teeth,  plus  a  third  tooth  discovered  as  the  sole  result 
of  a  subsequent  expedition.  Heidelberg  man  has  to  be  recon¬ 
structed  from  a  jaw. 


140 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


The  remains  which  illustrate  the  development  of  the  human 
mind  are  not  so  scarce.  A  single  man  might  easily  manufacture 
hundreds  or  even  thousands  of  implements  in  the  course  of  a 
lifetime.  “When  these  are  of  stone  they  are  practically  imper¬ 
ishable;  whereas  it  is  only  the  exceptional  skeleton,  protected  by 
favorable  circumstances,  of  which  the  bones  will  endure  for  thou¬ 
sands  of  years.  For  every  ancient  true  fossil  trace  of  man  that 
has  been  found,  we  have  therefore  thousands  of  the  works  of 
his  hands. 

The  inadequateness  of  the  cultural  record  is  not  in  the  in¬ 
sufficient  number  of  the  specimens,  but  in  their  onesidedness. 
Objects  of  stone,  even  those  of  horn  and  of  metal,  last;  clothing, 
fabrics,  skins,  basketry,  and  wooden  articles  ordinarily  decay 
so  rapidly  as  to  have  no  chance  of  being  preserved  for  tens  of 
thousands  of  years.  Tools  of  the  most  ancient  times  have  often 
been  found  in  abundance;  objects  manufactured  with  tools  from 
softer  and  less  enduring  materials  are  scarce  even  from  mod¬ 
erately  old  periods.  Now  and  then  a  piece  of  an  earthenware 
pot  may  show  the  imprint  of  a  textile.  Textiles  and  foodstuffs 
are  occasionally  preserved  by  charring  in  fire  or  by  penetration 
of  metallic  salts.  Charcoal  or  ashes  found  in  pockets  or  beds 
indicate  that  fire  was  maintained  in  one  spot  for  considerable 
periods,  and  must  therefore  have  been  controlled  and  used,  pos¬ 
sibly  even  produced,  by  human  agency.  A  bone  needle  with  an 
eye  proves  that  some  one  must  have  sewn,  and  one  may  there¬ 
fore  assume  that  garments  were  worn  at  the  time.  But  for 
every  point  established  in  this  way  there  are  dozens  about  which 
knowledge  remains  blank. 

Understanding  of  the  social  and  religious  life  of  the  earliest 
men  is  naturally  filled  with  the  greatest  gaps,  and  the  farther 
back  one  goes  in  time,  the  greater  is  the  enveloping  darkness. 
The  problem  is  as  difficult  as  that  of  figuring  accurately  the 
degree  of  intelligence  attained  by  the  mailed  fishes  of  the 
Devonian  age  some  thirty  or  forty  million  years  ago,  or  of  esti¬ 
mating  whether  the  complexion  of  Pithecanthropus  was  black, 
brown,  or  white.  One  can  guess  on  these  matters.  One  may 
by  careful  comparisons  obtain  some  partial  and  indirect  indi¬ 
cation  of  an  answer.  But  it  is  clearly  wisest  not  to  try  to  stretch 
too  far  the  conclusions  which  can  be  drawn.  Imagination  has 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  HUMAN  CIVILIZATION  141 


its  value  in  science  as  in  art  and  other  aspects  of  life,  yet  when 
it  becomes  disproportionate  to  the  facts,  it  is  a  danger  instead 
of  an  aid. 

Still,  now  and  then  something  has  been  preserved  from  which 
one  may  draw  inferences  with  a  reasonable  prospect  of  cer¬ 
tainty  even  concerning  the  non-material  side  of  life.  If  human 
bones  are  discovered  charred  and  split  open,  there  is  good  reason 
for  believing  these  bones  to  be  the  remains  of  a  cannibal  feast. 
When  prehistoric  skeletons  are  found  in  the  position  in  which 
death  might  have  taken  place,  the  presumption  is  that  the  people 
of  that  time  abandoned  their  dead  as  animals  would.  If  on 
the  other  hand  a  skeleton  lies  intact  with  its  arms  carefully 
folded,  there  is  little  room  for  doubt  that  the  men  of  the  time 
had  progressed  to  the  point  where  the  survivors  put  away  their 
dead;  in  other  words,  that  human  burial  had  been  instituted, 
and  that  accordingly  at  least  some  rude  form  of  society  was  in 
existence.  When,  perhaps  from  a  still  later  period,  a  skeleton 
is  found  with  red  paint  adhering  to  the  bones,  although  these 
lie  in  their  natural  places,  the  only  conclusion  to  be  drawn  is 
that  the  dead  body  was  coated  with  pigment  before  being  in¬ 
terred  and  that  as  the  soft  tissues  wasted  away  the  red  ocher 
came  to  adhere  to  the  bones.  In  this  case  the  painting  was  evi¬ 
dently  part  of  a  rite  performed  over  the  dead. 

66.  Stone  and  Metals 

The  cultural  record  of  man’s  existence  is  divided  into  two 
great  periods.  In  the  latter  of  these,  in  which  we  are  still 
living,  metals  were  used;  in  the  earlier,  metals  were  unknown 
and  tools  made  of  stone.  Hence  the  terms  “Age  of  Stone”  and 
“Age  of  Metals.”  The  duration  of  these  two  main  periods  is 
unequal.  Metals  were  first  used  in  Asia  and  Egypt  about  4,000 
B.C.  and  in  Europe  about  3,000  B.C: — say  five  to  six  thousand 
years  ago.  The  most  conservative  authorities,  however,  would 
allow  forty  or  fifty  thousand  years  for  the  Stone  Age ;  while 
others  make  it  cover  a  quarter  million.  The  assumption,  which 
is  here  followed,  of  the  intermediate  figure  of  a  hundred  thou¬ 
sand  years  gives  the  Stone  Age  a  duration  twenty  times  as 
long  as  the  Age  of  Metals.  When  one  remembers  that  hand  in 


142 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


hand  with  metals  came  the  art  of  writing  and  an  infinite  variety 
of  inventions,  it  is  clear  that  larger  additions  have  been  made  to 
human  civilization  in  the  comparatively  brief  period  of  metals 
than  in  the  tremendously  longer  time  that  preceded  it.  Progress 
in  the  Stone  Age  was  not  only  slow,  but  the  farther  back  one 
peers  into  this  age,  the  more  lagging  does  the  evolution  of 
human  culture  seem  to  have  been.  One  can  definitely  recognize 
a  tendency  toward  the  acceleration  of  evolution:  the  farther 
advancement  has  got  the  faster  it  moves. 

The  Age  of  Metals  is  subdivided  into  the  Iron  Age,  which 
begins  some  three  thousand  years  ago,  say  about  1,500-1,000 
B.C. ;  and  an  earlier  Bronze  Age.  In  the  Bronze  Age  one  must 
distinguish  first  a  period  in  which  native  copper  was  employed 
in  some  parts  of  the  wrorld ;  after  which  comes  an  era  in  which 
it  had  been  learned  that  copper  melted  with  a  proportion  of 
about  one-tenth  tin,  thus  producing  bronze,  was  a  superior  mate¬ 
rial.  Within  the  past  five  thousand  years  or  so,  accordingly, 
there  are  recognized  successively  the  ages  of  copper,  of  bronze, 
and  of  iron. 

Broadly  speaking,  these  five  thousand  years  are  also  the  his¬ 
toric  period.  Not  that  there  exist  historic  records  going  back 
so  far  as  this  for  every  people.  But  the  earliest  preserved 
documents  that  the  historian  uses,  the  written  monuments  of 
Egypt  and  Babylonia,  are  about  five  thousand  years  old.  The 
Age  of  Metals  thus  corresponds  approximately  with  the  period 
of  History;  the  Stone  Age,  with  Prehistory. 

67.  The  Old  and  the  New  Stone  Ages 

The  Stone  Age,  apart  from  a  rather  doubtful  introductory 
era  to  be  mentioned  presently,  is  customarily  divided  into  two 
periods,  the  Old  Stone  Age  and  the  New  Stone  Age, — the 
Palaeolithic  and  the  Neolithic.  These  words  of  Greek  origin 
mean  literally  “old  stone’ ’  and  “new  stone”  periods.  The 
criterion  by  which  these  two  grand  divisions  were  originally 
distinguished  was  that  in  the  Palaeolithic  artifacts  were  made 
only  by  chipping,  that  is,  some  process  of  fracturing  stone, 
whereas  Neolithic  stone  objects  were  thought  to  have  been 
pecked,  ground,  rubbed,  and  polished.  Indeed  the  two  periods 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  HUMAN  CIVILIZATION  143 


have  sometimes  been  designated  as  the  epochs  of  rough  stone 
and  polished  stone  implements. 

This  distinction  is  now  known  to  be  inaccurate.  It  is  true 
that  the  Old  Stone  Age  did  not  yet  employ  frictional  processes 
in  shaping  stone  and  confined  itself  to  the  older  methods  of  frac¬ 
turing  by  blows  or  pressure.  But  the  converse  is  not  true,  that 
the  Neolithic  worked  stone  only  by  grinding,  nor  even  that 
grinding  was  its  characteristic  process.  Stone  grinding  was 
invented  only  toward  the  middle  of  the  New  Stone  Age — in 
what  is  perhaps  best  designated  the  “Full  Neolithic.”  The 
Early  Neolithic,  which  lasted  half  the  total  Neolithic  duration, 
continued  to  work  stone  by  fracture.  What  marked  the  begin¬ 
ning  of  the  Neolithic  was  certain  inventions  having  nothing  to 
do  with  stone :  notably  pottery  and  the  bow.  With  these  avail¬ 
able,  human  life  took  on  a  new  color,  and  it  was  not  until  some 
thousands  of  years  later  that  shaping  of  stone  by  grinding  came 
into  use.  In  other  words,  the  prehistorians’  idea  as  to  what 
constitutes  the  Neolithic  have  changed,  and  they  no  longer  put 
stone  processes  in  the  first  place  in  characterizing  the  period. 
They  would  do  well,  therefore,  to  change  its  name  also  to  one 
having  reference  to  its  more  specific  traits.  Such  a  change  of 
designation  will  perhaps  become  established  in  time.  But  at 
present  the  term  Neolithic  is  so  intrenched  in  usage,  that  to 
replace  it  by  “Pottery  Age”  or  “Bow  Age”  would  be  mislead¬ 
ing:  all  the  literature  on  the  subject  employs  “Neolithic.” 
The  present  chapter  being  concerned  specifically  with  the  Palaeo¬ 
lithic,  and  this  being  an  age  in  which  stone  implements  did  loom 
large  and  were  consistently  made  by  fracture  only,  the  difficul¬ 
ties  about  the  concept  of  the  Neolithic,  and  its  subdivision  into 
an  Early  and  a  Full  period,  can  be  reserved  for  discussion  later 
(Chapter  XIV).  But  it  is  well  to  bear  in  mind  as  the  Palaeo¬ 
lithic  is  examined  in  the  pages  immediately  following,  that  the 
Neolithic  is  neither  its  antithesis  nor  its  logical  complement,  but 
rather  a  period  signalized  by  the  appearance  of  totally  new 
directions  of  human  culture. 

Another  point  in  connection  with  the  two  processes  of  working 
stone  has  reference  to  the  mental  activities  involved  by  them. 
A  tolerable  ground  ax  or  mortar  can  be  made  without  much 
difficulty  by  any  one  willing  to  take  the  trouble.  A  civilized 


144 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


person  entirely  inexperienced  in  the  working  of  stone  would  be 
likely  to  produce  a  fairly  satisfactory  implement  by  the  rubbing 
technique.  If  however  he  attempted  to  manufacture  a  chipped 
stone  tool,  even  of  simple  type,  he  would  probably  fail  repeat¬ 
edly  before  learning  to  control  the  method  well  enough  to  turn 
out  an  implement  without  first  ruining  a  dozen.  In  short,  the 
manual  dexterity  required  to  produce  the  best  forms  of  chipped 
stone  tools  is  greater  than  that  needed  for  ground  ones.  Inas¬ 
much  as  the  chipping  process  is,  however,  the  earlier,  we  are 
confronted  here  with  a  paradox. 

Yet  the  paradox  is  only  on  the  surface.  It  is  true  that  so 
far  as  skill  alone  is  concerned  a  good  chipped  tool  is  more 
difficult  to  make  than  a  ground  one.  But  it  can  be  made  in  a 
shorter  time.  A  rough  stone  tool  can  be  manufactured  in  a 
few  minutes.  A  good  artifact  may  be  preceded  by  a  number 
of  unsuccessful  attempts  or  “ rejects,”  and  yet  be  produced  in 
an  hour  or  less.  The  processes  of  pecking,  grinding,  and  pol¬ 
ishing,  on  the  other  hand,  are  laborious.  They  are  slow  even 
when  pursued  with  steel  tools,  and  when  the  shaping  material 
is  no  better  than  another  stone  or  sand,  as  was  of  course  always 
the  case  in  prehistoric  times,  the  duration  of  the  labor  must 
have  been  discouraging.  Weeks  or  at  least  days  would  be  re¬ 
quired  to  manufacture  a  single  implement.  If  the  work  was 
done  at  odd  times,  one  may  imagine  that  many  a  stone  ax  was 
months  in  being  produced.  Patience  and  forethought  of  a  rather 
high  order  are  thus  involved  in  the  making  of  implements  of 
the  Neolithic  type.  Dexterity  is  replaced  by  higher  qualities 
of  what  might  be  called  the  moral  order.  By  comparison,  the 
earliest  men  lacked  these  traits.  They  would  not  sit  down 
to-day  to  commence  something  that  would  not  be  available  for 
use  until  a  month  later.  What  they  wanted  they  wanted 
quickly.  To  think  ahead,  to  sacrifice  present  convenience  to 
future  advantage,  must  have  been  foreign  to  their  way  of  life. 
Therefore  they  chipped ;  and  although  in  the  lapse  of  thousands 
of  years  they  learned  to  do  some  chipping  of  high  quality,  they 
continued  to  operate  with  modifications  of  the  same  rough  and 
rapid  process.  The  uses  to  which  their  implements  could  be 
put  were  also  correspondingly  restricted.  A  first-class  ax,  a 
real  chisel,  or  a  mortar  in  which  grinding  can  be  done,  can 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  HUMAN  CIVILIZATION  145 


scarcely  be  made  by  chipping  alone.  It  was  not  until  men  had 
learned  to  restrain  their  childish  impulse  to  work  only  for  the 
immediate  purpose,  and  had  acquired  an  increased  self-control 
and  discipline,  that  the  grinding  of  stone  came  into  use. 

One  principle  must  be  clearly  adhered  to  in  the  dating  or 
proper  arrangement  of  the  periods  of  prehistoric  time :  the  prin¬ 
ciple  that  it  is  always  the  highest  types  of  implements  which 
determine  the  age  of  a  deposit.  Lower  forms  often  persist  from 
the  earlier  periods  into  the  later,  alongside  the  newly  invented 
higher  types.  The  men  of  the  Full  Neolithic  time  did  not  wholly 
give  up  making  chipped  implements  because  they  also  ground 
stone.  Just  so  we  have  not  discarded  the  use  of  stone  because 
we  use  metals,  and  we  still  employ  copper  for.  a  great  variety 
of  purposes  although  we  live  in  an  age  of  which  iron  and  steel 
are  characteristic.  To  reckon  a  people  as  Palaeolithic  because 
they  had  chipped  implements  as  well  as  ground  ones,  would  be 
as  misleading  as  to  assert  that  we  still  belong  to  the  Stone  Age 
because  we  build  houses  of  granite.  In  fact,  stone  masonry  has 
had  its  principal  development  since  metals  have  been  in  use. 

This  caution  seems  elementary  enough.  But  it  has  sometimes 
been  overlooked  by  scholars  in  the  pursuit  of  a  theory  that  made 
them  try  to  stamp  some  prehistoric  or  savage  race  as  particu¬ 
larly  primitive.  If  in  a  stratum  of  ancient  remains  there  are 
discovered  a  thousand  chipped  artifacts  and  only  ten  that  are 
ground  or  polished  but  the  latter  unquestionably  left  there  at 
the  same  time  as  the  thousand  chipped  ones,  one  is  justified  in 
reckoning  the  whole  deposit  as  Full  Neolithic  in  period.  For  in 
such  a  case  it  is  clear  that  the  art  of  grinding  must  have  been 
already  known,  even  though  it  may  as  yet  have  been  practised 
only  occasionally. 

It  is  found  that  all  surviving  peoples  of  primitive  culture — 
American  Indians,  Australian  black-fellows,  Polynesians,  Hot¬ 
tentots,  and  the  like — except  probably  the  Tasmanians,  have 
attained  the  grinding  stage  of  development.  It  is  true  enough 
that  many  American  Indian  tribes  chipped  arrow-points  and 
knives  more  frequently  than  they  would  grind  out  axes.  Yet 
without  exception  they  also  knew  the  process  of  grinding  stone 
and  applied  it  to  some  purpose.  For  this  reason  the  endeavors 
that  have  been  made  by  certain  authors;  who  compare  particular 


14(3 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


modern  savage  peoples  to  the  races  of  prehistoric  Europe  on  the 
basis  of  a  similarity  of  their  chipped  implements,  are  mislead¬ 
ing.  It  is  true  that  tools  like  those  produced  in  the  Mousterian 
period  of  the  Old  Stone  Age  are  made  by  the  modern  Australian 
tribes,  and  that  certain  Magdalenian  implements  from  near  the 
end  of  the  Old  Stone  Age  find  parallels  among  those  of  the 
Eskimo.  But  both  the  Australians  and  the  Eskimo  practise  the 
art  of  rubbing  and  polishing  of  stone,  which  was  unknown  in 
the  Palaeolithic.  They  therefore  belong  clearly  to  a  later  stage 
of  civilization.  Too  great  an  insistence  on  such  parallels  would 
be  likely  to  give  rise  to  the  implication  that  the  Australians  were 
a  species  of  belated  Mousterian  Stone  Age  men,  and  the  Eskimo 
only  Magdalenians  whom  the  Arctic  regions  had  somehow  per¬ 
petuated  for  ten  thousand  years ;  whereas  their  civilizations  con¬ 
sist  of  Mousterian  and  Magdalenian  ingredients  plus  many  sub¬ 
sequent  elements.  The  stage  of  development  of  the  art  of  chip¬ 
ping  in  stone  may  be  the  same ;  the  other  arts  and  customs  of 
modern  Australian  black-fellows  and  of  Eskimos,  and  their 
bodily  types,  differ  from  those  of  the  prehistoric  Europeans. 

With  the  distinction  of  the  Palaeolithic,  Neolithic,  and  the 
Ages  of  Copper,  Bronze,  and  Iron  in  mind,  it  is  in  order  to 
examine  what  may  have  preceded  them,  and  then  to  trace  in 
outline  the  development  which  human  culture  underwent  during 
the  Palaeolithic  in  the  continent  in  which  its  records  are  best 
explored — Europe. 


68.  The  Eolithic  Age 

The  earliest  of  all  periods  of  human  handiwork,  although  a 
somewhat  doubtful  one,  is  the  Eolithic,  or  age  of  the  “dawn 
of  stone”  implements. 

On  purely  theoretical  grounds  it  appears  likely,  indeed  almost 
inevitable,  that  the  first  definitely  chipped  implements  did  not 
develop  full-fledged,  but  were  preceded  by  still  cruder  tools, 
made  perhaps  without  clear  intent,  and  at  any  rate  so  rough  and 
half-shaped  that  they  would  be  difficult  to  recognize. 

After  the  evolution  of  Palaeolithic  implements  had  become 
pretty  well  known,  this  conjecture  began  to  be  supported  by 
evidence,  or  at  least  by  alleged  evidence.  Investigators,  espe- 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  HUMAN  CIVILIZATION  147 


cially  Rutot  in  Belgium,  found  flints  of  which  it  was  difficult 
to  say  whether  or  not  they  had  been  used  by  human  hands. 
These  pieces  occurred  in  extremely  ancient  deposits.  On  the 
basis  of  these  discoveries  Rutot  and  his  followers  established 
the  Eolitliic  period.  Some  have  consistently  assailed  this 
Eolithic  age  as  imaginary,  asserting  that  the  so-called  eoliths 
were  nothing  but  accidental  products  of  nature.  Others  have 
accepted  the  eoliths  and  recognize  the  stage  of  embryonic  or 
pre-human  civilization  which  they  imply.  Still  other  students 
remain  in  doubt ;  and  their  attitude  is  perhaps  still  the  safest 
to  share. 

The  view  now  most  prevalent  is  that  the  alleged  Eolithic 
flints  may  have  been  used  by  early  human  hands,  but  that  they 
were  almost  certainly  not  manufactured.  This  would  make  them 
tools  only  in  the  sense  in  which  the  limb  of  a  tree  is  a  tool 
when  a  man  in  distress  seizes  it  to  defend  himself. 

The  eoliths  are  more  or  less  irregular  pieces  of  flint  or  similar 
stone,  some  of  them  so  blunt  that  they  must  have  been  very 
inefficient  if  used  for  chopping  or  cutting  or  scraping.  Small 
nocks  or  chips  along  the  edge  are  believed  not  to  have  been 
flaked  off  with  the  conscious  intent  of  producing  an  edge,  but 
to  have  become  chipped  away  through  usage  while  the  stone  was 
being  manipulated  as  a  naturally  formed  tool.  This  would  be 
much  in  line  with  our  picking  up  a  cobblestone  in  default  of 
an  ax  or  hammer,  and  continuing  to  maul  away  with  it  until 
the  rough  handling  broke  off  several  pieces  and  happened  acci¬ 
dentally  to  produce  an  edge.  That  the  eoliths  were  such  unin¬ 
tentionally  made  tools  is  the  most  that  can  safely  be  claimed 
for  them. 

Even  so  some  doubts  remain.  Stones  similar  to  eoliths  in  every 
respect,  except  that  their  fractures  show  a  fresher  appearance, 
have  been  taken  by  dozens  out  of  modern  steel  drums  in  which 
flint-bearing  chalk  was  being  broken  for  industrial  purposes. 

Then,  too,  the  first  believers  in  the  authenticity  of  the  eoliths 
reported  them  as  occurring  from  the  middle  and  earlier  layers 
of  the  Pleistocene,  in  which  periods  we  know  that  nearly  human 
or  half -human  types  like  Heidelberg  man  and  Pithecanthropus 
were  already  in  existence.  These  two  species  being  more  similar 
to  modern  man  than  to  the  apes  or  other  animals,  we  must 


148 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


imagine  them  to  have  been  gifted  with  at  least  some  human 
intelligence.  It  would  therefore  have  been  entirely  possible  for 
them  to  supplement  the  tools  with  which  nature  endowed  them 
— their  hands  and  teeth — with  flints  which  they  picked  up  and 
manipulated  in  one  useful  way  or  another  without  particularly 
troubling  to  shape  the  stones. 

So  far  the  argument  is  all  in  favor  of  the  reality  of  the  eolith. 
Before  long,  however,  it  was  discovered  that  eoliths  were  not 
especially  more  abundant  in  the  middle  Pleistocene  just  previous 
to  the  opening  of  the  Palaeolithic,  when  we  should  expect  them 
to  have  been  most  numerous,  than  they  were  in  the  early 
Pleistocene,  when  the  human  species  must  still  have  been  most 
rudimentary.  Then  it  was  found  that  eoliths  occur  in  lowTer 
strata  than  the  earliest  Pleistocene,  namely,  in  the  Pliocene,  in 
the  Miocene,  and  perhaps  even  earlier,  in  the  Oligocene.  Yet 
these  periods  are  divisions  of  the  Tertiary,  or  Age  of  Mammals 
— the  age  before  man  had  been  evolved !  In  short,  the  argument 
cuts  too  far.  Once  one  begins  to  accept  eoliths  it  is  difficult  to 
stop  accepting  them  without  carrying  them  back  into  a  period 
of  geological  history  when  evolution  could  scarcely  have  pro¬ 
duced  a  form  sufficiently  advanced  in  intelligence  to  use  them.1 

Perhaps  on  the  whole  the  strongest  argument  in  favor  of  the 
authenticity  of  the  Pleistocene  eoliths  is  the  fact  that  the  first 
implements  known  positively  to  belong  to  the  Old  Stone  Age 
are  just  a  little  too  well  shaped  and  efficient  to  represent  the 
products  of  the  very  beginnings  of  human  manual  dexterity. 
One  cannot  help  but  look  for  something  antecedent  that  was 
simpler  and  ruder ;  and  this  need  of  the  imagination  the  eoliths 
do  go  a  long  way  to  satify. 

69.  The  Palaeolithic  Age:  Duration,  Climate,  Animals 

With  the  Eolithic  period  passed  and  the  Palaeolithic  entered, 
our  history  of  incipient  human  culture  is  on  a  solid  foundation, 

i  .Recently,  certain  “rostro-carinate”  pre-Palseolithic  implements  have 
been  much  discussed  by  British  archaeologists,  and  in  the  past  year  or  two 
there  have  been  some  adherents  of  other  nationalities.  The  implements  are 
referred  in  part  to  the  Pliocene,  that  is,  late  Tertiary,  and  are  said  to  be 
accompanied  by  hearths.  The  evidence  to  be  adjudicated  is  technical,  and 
some  years  will  probably  elapse  before  expert  opinion  settles  into  tolera¬ 
ble  agreement  on  the  authenticity  of  the  objects  as  artifacts  and  their  age. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  HUMAN  CIVILIZATION  149 


especially  so  far  as  western  Europe,  the  best  explored  region, 
is  concerned.  The  general  relation  of  this  Old  Stone  Age  in 
geological  time  may  be  defined  as  follows.  The  Quaternary, 
whose  duration  may  be  estimated  to  have  been  about  a  million 
years,  is  subdivided  into  the  Pleistocene  and  the  Recent.  Of 
the  two,  the  Recent  is  very  much  shorter  than  the  Pleistocene. 
Broadly  speaking,  from  ninety-eight  to  ninety-nine  per  cent  of 
the  total  duration  of  the  Quaternary  was  occupied  by  the 
Pleistocene.  The  small  remainder  which  the  geologist  calls 
“Recent,”  corresponds  to  those  periods  which  the  archaeologist 
and  the  historian  name  the  New  Stone  and  Metal  Ages;  say 
the  past  ten  thousand  years.  The  Old  Stone  Age  therefore 
falls  in  the  Pleistocene.  But  it  occupies  only  the  later  dura¬ 
tion  of  the  Pleistocene ;  the  earlier  part  of  the  Pleistocene  is 
barren  of  tools  or  other  records  of  human  culture,  except  so 
far  as  the  eoliths  may  be  so  considered. 

The  proportion  of  the  Pleistocene  which  is  covered  by  the 
Old  Stone  Age  is  variously  estimated.  Some  geologists  will  not 
allow  the  undisputed  Palaeolithic  to  have  extended  over  more 
than  the  last  tenth  of  the  Pleistocene :  the  rivers  have  not 
changed  their  beds  enough  to  permit  the  assumption  of  a  longer 
period.  This  allowance  would  give  the  Palaeolithic  a  duration  of 
perhaps  a  hundred  thousand  years,  which  is  the  figure  here  fol¬ 
lowed.  Those  who  place  the  beginning  of  the  European  Palaeo¬ 
lithic  in  the  second  instead  of  the  third  interglacial  period, 
would  have  to  admit  a  considerably  longer  duration. 

The  geologist,  because  he  deals  with  such  enormous  durations, 
has  to  operate  on  a  broad-gauge  scale,  and  usually  disdains  to 
commit  himself  to  close  estimates  of  years.  To  measure  the  lapse 
of  time  within  the  Pleistocene,  he  has  found  it  most  useful  to 
avail  himself  of  the  evidences  left  by  the  great  glaciers  which 
repeatedly  covered  parts  of  several  continents  during  the  Pleis¬ 
tocene,  and  he  has  therefore  given  this  period  its  popular  name 
of  “glacial  epoch.”  These  glaciations  must  be  imagined  as 
having  occurred  on  a  much  larger  scale  than  one  might  at  first 
infer  from  the  shrunken  remnants  of  the  glaciers  that  persist 
in  the  Alps  and  other  mountains.  The  Pleistocene  glaciers  were 
vast  sheets,  hundreds  of  feet  in  thickness,  sliding  uniformly 
over  valleys,  hills,  and  mountains  except  for  an  occasional  high 


150 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


peak.  Modem  Greenland,  which  except  at  the  edges  is  buried 
under  a  solid  ice  cap,  evidently  presents  a  pretty  fair  picture 
of  what  the  northern  parts  of  Europe  and  North  America  re¬ 
peatedly  looked  like  during  the  Pleistocene. 

Four  such  glaciations,  or  periods  of  maximum  extent  of  the 
continental  ice,  have  been  distinguished,  and  more  or  less  cor¬ 
related,  in  Europe  and  North  America.  In  Europe  they  have 
been  designated  as  the  Giinz,  Mindel,  Riss,  and  Wurm  glacia¬ 
tions  respectively  (Fig.  5).  Each  of  these  is  the  name  of  a 
locality  in  the  Alps  at  which  typical  moraines  or  erosions  pro¬ 
duced  by  the  ice  of  that  period  have  been  carefully  observed. 

Between  these  four  successive  advances  of  the  ice  sheets  there 
fell  more  temperate  eras,  some  of  them  rather  arid,  and  others 
moist  and  almost  tropical  even  in  the  latitude  of  Europe.  These 
mild  intervals  are  known  as  the  interglacial  periods.  That  Eu¬ 
rope  was  free  from  ice  during  these  interglacial  periods  is  shown 
not  only  by  facts  of  a  purely  geological  nature  but  by  the  occur¬ 
rence  in  these  periods  of  fossils  of  a  semi-tropical  fauna  which 
included  elephants,  rhinoceroses,  lions,  and  the  like. 

Coming  now  to  a  consideration  of  the  relation  of  man  to  these 
iee  eras,  we  find  that  the  first,  second,  and  probably  the  third 
glaciations  passed  without  leaving  sure  evidence  of  manufac¬ 
tured  stone  implements.  In  the  last  interglacial  period,  that 
which  falls  between  the  Riss  and  the  Wurm  glaciations,  the 
so-called  “Chellean  picks”  appear;  and  from  then  on  the  record 
of  artifacts  is  a  continuous  one.  Considerable  parts  of  Europe 
remained  habitable  all  through  the  fourth  and  last  glaciation, 
the  Wurm  period,  as  the  implements  discovered  prove.  Gradu¬ 
ally,  although  irregularly  and  with  three  minor  advances  and  re¬ 
cessions,  always  diminishing  in  rigor,  however,  this  last  predomi¬ 
nance  of  the  ice  died  away;  until,  by  the  time  its  effects  had 
wholly  disappeared,  and  the  geologically  “ Recent”  era  was  in¬ 
augurated,  human  civilization  had  evolved  to  a  point  where  it 
began  to  enter  the  New  Stone  Age. 

The  animals  whose  fossils  are  found  in  the  same  deposits  with 
human  skeletons  and  artifacts  have  been  of  the  greatest  assist¬ 
ance  in  the  determination  of  the  periods  of  such  remains.  The 
fossils  are  partly  of  extinct  species  until  toward  the  very  end 
of  the  Pleistocene,  when  exclusively  living  types  of  animals 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  HUMAN  CIVILIZATION  151 


begin  wholly  to  supersede  the  earlier  ones.  While  the  identifi¬ 
cation  of  the  various  species,  and  the  fixation  of  the  age  of  each, 
is  the  work  of  the  specialist  in  palaeontology,  the  results  of  such 
studies  are  all-important  to  the  historian  of  man’s  beginnings, 
because  they  help  to  determine  chronology.  If  artifacts  are 
found  in  association  with  fossil  remains  of  an  extinct  animal 
such  as  the  mammoth  or  the  woolly  rhinoceros,  they  are  obvi¬ 
ously  older  than  artifacts  that  are  accompanied  only  by  the 
bones  of  the  reindeer,  the  dog,  or  other  living  species.  For  this 
reason,  although  the  history  of  mammalian  life  in  the  past  is  a 
science  in  itself,  it  also  has  close  relations  with  human  pre¬ 
history.  Some  of  the  most  characteristic  animals  of  the  later 
Pleistocene,  and  the  successive  stages  of  human  cultural  develop¬ 
ment  with  which  they  were  associated,  are  listed  on  the  follow¬ 
ing  page. 


70.  Subdivisions  of  the  Paleolithic 

The  places  at  which  the  men  of  the  Stone  Age  lived  and  where 
their  debris  accumulated  are  known  as  ‘ ‘stations.”  The  word 
was  first  employed  in  this  sense  in  French,  but  has  been  taken 
over  into  other  languages.  A  “station”  then  is  simply  a  spot 
at  which  prehistoric  remains  of  human  occupation  are  found. 
At  least  a  thousand  of  these  have  been  discovered  in  western 
Europe.  In  general  they  divide  into  two  classes.  One  kind  is 
in  the  open,  mostly  in  the  gravels  laid  down  by  streams.  These 
are  therefore  known  as  “River  Drift”  or  simply  “Drift”  sta¬ 
tions.  The  other  kind  .is  found  in  caves  or  under  sheltering 
rocks.  The  majority  of  Drift  stations  have  proved  to  be  from 
the  earlier  or  Lower  Palaeolithic,  whereas  the  Cave  stations  date 
mostly  from  the  later  or  Upper  Palaeolithic.  The  Drift  and  the 
Cave  periods  are  therefore  often  distinguished  within  the  Old 
Stone  Age,  especially  by  English  archaeologists.  French,  Ger¬ 
man,  and  American  students  generally  use  the  terms  “Lower 
Palaeolithic”  and  “Upper  Palaeolithic,”  whose  reference  is  to 
periods  of  cultural  development  rather  than  type  of  locality 
inhabited,  and  which  carry  more  significance.  French  archaeolo¬ 
gists  also  speak  of  the  Upper  Palaeolithic  as  the  Reindeer  Age. 

The  student  who  perhaps  contributed  most  to  the  foundation 


152 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


The  Later  Glacial  Fauna  of  Western  Europe 

(Read  upward) 

Pociglacial  and  Recent: 

Bison,  Bison  'prisons. 

Wild  cattle,  Bos  primigenius. 

Red  deer  or  stag,  Cervus  elaphus. 

Roe-deer,  Capreolus. 

Reindeer,  Rangifer  tarandus . 

Wild  boar,  Sus  scrofa. 


Fourth  Glacial  and  Postglacial  fauna:  typically  Mousterian  to  Mag- 
dalenian : 

Woolly  mammoth,  Elephas  primigenius. 

Woolly  or  Siberian  rhinoceros,  Rhinoceros  antiquitatis. 
Cave  lion,  Felis  leo  spelaea. 

Cave  hyaena,  Hyaena  crocuta  spelaea. 

Cave  bear,  Ursus  spelaeus. 

Horse,  Equus  caballus. 

Ibex. 

Banded  lemming,  Myodes  torquatus. 


Third  Interglacial  fauna:  typically  Chellean  and  Acheulean: 

Straight-tusked  elephant,  Elephas  antiquus. 
Broad-nosed  rhinoceros,  Rhinoceros  Merckii. 
Lion,  Felis  leo  antiqua. 

Spotted  hyaena,  Hyaena  crocuta. 

Brown  bear,  Ursus  arctos 
Horses,  probably  several  varieties. 


Second  Interglacial  Fauna:  typically  Pre-Palceolithic,  but  in  part  sur¬ 
viving  into  the  Chellean  in  favored  localities : 

Southern  mammoth,  Elephas  meridionalis. 

Etruscan  rhinoceros,  Rhinoceros  etruscus. 

Hippopotamus  major. 

Saber-tooth  tigers,  Machaerodus. 

Striped  hyaena,  Hyaena  striata. 

Steno’s  horse,  Equus  stenonis. 

Bison  antiquus. 

Mastodon,  tapir,  anthropoids,  and  all  primates  but  man 
and  the  macaque  monkey  already  extinct  in  Western 
Europe. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  HUMAN  CIVILIZATION  153 


of  knowledge  of  the  Palaeolithic  period  was  Gabriel  de  Mortillet. 
He  first  recognized  four  distinct  sub-periods  of  the  Palaeolithic, 
each  possessing  its  distinctive  kinds  of  implements.  These  four 
periods,  each  named  after  one  particular  ‘  ‘  station,  ”  are  the 
Chellean  or  earliest;  the  Mousterian;  the  Solutrean;  and  the 
Magdalenian  or  latest.  These  derived  their  designations  from 
the  four  stations  of  Chelles  in  northern  France,  and  of  Le 


Fig.  16.  Type  stations  of  the  Palaeolithic  periods.  (After  Osborn.) 


Moustier,  Solutre,  and  La  Madeleine  in  southern  France  (Fig. 
16).  De  Mortillet  did  not  endeavor  to  relate  the  culture  of 
each  of  these  four  periods  wholly  to  the  particular  locality  for 
which  he  named  it.  He  chose  the  stations  as  typical  and  in¬ 
cluded  others  as  belonging  to  the  same  eras. 

As  more  implements  were  found  and  studied,  it  was  recog¬ 
nized,  in  part  by  de  Mortillet  himself,  that  while  his  original 
classification  was  sound,  it  was  also  incomplete.  Two  other 
periods  had  to  be  admitted.  One  of  these,  the  Acheulean,  falls 
before  the  Mousterian,  and  the  second,  the  Aurignacian,  after 


154 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


it.  This  makes  six  periods  within  the  Old  Stone  Age ;  and  these 
have  been  adopted  by  all  students  of  the  prehistory  of  man  in 
Europe.  The  first  three,  the  Chellean,  Acheulean,  and  Mous- 
terian,  make  up  the  Lower  Palaeolithic ;  the  last  three,  the 
Aurignacian,  Solutrean,  and  Magdalenian,  constitute  the  Upper 
Palaeolithic  or  Reindeer  Age.  These  six  divisions  of  the  Old 
Stone  Age  are  so  essential  to  an  understanding  of  the  prehistory 
of  man,  that  the  serious  student  finds  it  necessary  to  know  their 
names  and  sequence  automatically. 

71.  Human  Racial  Types  in  the  Palaeolithic 

t 

When  it  comes  to  defining  the  types  of  fossil  man  in  the 
Palaeolithic,  a  curious  situation  develops.  Long  before  there 
was  even  a  true  Stone  Age,  in  the  early  and  middle  Pleistocene, 
there  lived  the  half -human  Pithecanthropus  and  the  primitively 
human  Heidelberg  race  (§11,  12).  But  for  the  whole  first  part 
of  the  Palaeolithic,  throughout  the  Chellean  and  Acheulean,  no 
undisputed  find  of  any  skeletal  remains  has  yet  been  made,  al¬ 
though  thousands  of  implements  have  been  discovered  which 
are  undoubtedly  human  products.1 

In  the  present  state  of  knowledge  the  strongest  case  is  that 
for  the  skull  found  at  Piltdown  in  southern  England.  This  is 
said  to  have  been  associated  with  “Pre-Chellean”  tools,  which 
would  seem  to  establish  the  Piltdown  type  as  the  race  that  lived 
about  the  beginning  of  the  Palaeolithic  (§  13).  But  the  deposit 
at  Piltdown  had  been  more  or  less  rolled  or  shifted  by  natural 
agencies  before  its  discovery,  so  that  its  age  is  not  so  certain  as 
it  might  be ;  and  there  is  no  unanimity  of  opinion  as  to  whether 
the  highly  developed  skull  and  the  excessively  ape-like  jaw  that 
were  found  in  the  deposit  really  belong  together.  With  this 
doubt  about  the  fossil  itself,  it  seems  most  reasonable  not  to 
press  too  strongly  its  identification  as  the  type  of  man  that 
lived  in  Europe  at  the  commencement  of  the  Old  Stone  Age. 

For  the  end  of  the  Lower  Palaeolithic,  in  the  Mousterian,  con¬ 
ditions  change,  and  skeletal  remains  become  authentic  and  com¬ 
paratively  numerous.  From  this  period  date  the  skeletons  of 

1  The  Krapina  bones  (§14)  are  by  some  assigned  to  the  Chellean  or 
Acheulean. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  HUMAN  CIVILIZATION  155 


the  Neandertal  species  of  man:  a  short,  thickset  race,  powerful 
in  bones  and  musculature,  slightly  stooping  at  the  knee  and  at 
the  shoulder,  with  a  thick  neck  and  a  large  head  (§14).  The 
brain  was  about  as  large  as  that  of  modern  man,  but  the  re¬ 
treating  aspect  of  the  forehead  was  accentuated  by  heavy  brow 
ridges. 

In  the  Upper  Palaeolithic  the  Neandertal  species  has  disap¬ 
peared.  The  first  precursors  of  Homo  sapiens,  or  modern  man, 
have  come  on  the  scene.  A  sort  of  transition  from  Neandertal 
man  may  be  presented  by  the  Brunn  type,  but  the  prevailing 
race  in  western  Europe  during  the  Upper  Palaeolithic  period 
is  that  of  Cro-Magnon,  a  tall,  lithe,  well-formed  people,  as  agile 
and  swift  as  Neandertal  man  was  stocky  and  strong.  The  head 
and  features  were  well  proportioned,  the  skull  and  brain  re¬ 
markably  large,  the  general  type  not  inferior  to  modern  man, 
and  probably  already  proto-Caucasian  (§  16). 

Grimaldi  man,  so  far  known  only  from  one  spot  on  the  Medi¬ 
terranean  shore  of  Europe,  was  proto-Negroid,  Aurignacian  in 
period,  and  therefore  partly  contemporaneous  with  the  Cro- 
Magnon  race  (§  18). 

In  summary,  the  types  of  man  in  Europe  during  the  Old 
Stone  Age  have  been  as  follows: 


Magdalenian 

Solutrean 

Aurignacian 

Mousterian 

Acheulean 

Chellean 


Cro-Magnon 
Cro-Magnon;  Briinn 

Cro-Magnon  (Caucasian)  ;  also,  locally  Grimaldi 
(Negroid ) 

Neandertal  (possibly  without  living  descendants) 
Unknown 

Unknown;  Piltdown  perhaps  Pre-Chellean 


The  interrelations  of  geology,  glaciation,  human  types,  periods 
of  the  Stone  Age,  and  estimated  time  in  years  are  brought  to¬ 
gether  in  the  tables  “Antiquity  of  Man”  and  “Prehistory” 
(Figs.  5  and  17. )1 


72.  Paleolithic  Flint  Implements 

The  most  important  line  of  evidence  as  to  the  gradual  develop¬ 
ment  of  civilization  through  the  six  periods  of  the  Old  Stone 

i  It  will  be  noted  that  the  second  of  these  tables  is  an  amplification  of 
the  upper  part  of  the  first. 


EARLIEST  PREHISTORY  OF  EUROPE 

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Fig.  17.  Earliest  Prehistory  of  Europe.  This  table  is  an  elaboration 
of  the  upper  portion  of  Figure  5.  Equal  lapses  of  time  are  indicated 
by  equal  vertical  distances.  The  general  acceleration  of  development 
is  evident. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  HUMAN  CIVILIZATION  157 


Age  is  the  series  of  flint  tools.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  these 
tools  have  been  discovered  in  western,  central,  and  southern 
Europe — perhaps  millions.  At  St.  Acheul  were  found  20,000 
Chellean  coups-de-poing;  at  Solutre,  below  the  Solutrean  layer, 
35,000  Mousterian-Aurignacian  worked  flints  besides  the  remains 
of  100,000  horses ;  at  Grimaldi  in  Italy,  in  the  Grotte  du  Prince, 
20,000  Mousterian  pieces ;  at  Schweizersbild  in  Switzerland, 
14,000  late  Magdalenian  implements,  and  at  Kesslerloch,  near 
by,  30,000  from  the  late  Solutrean  and  Magdalenian ;  at 
Hundsteig  in  Austria,  20,000  Aurignacian  flints ;  at  Predmost 
in  Czecho-Slovakia,  25,000  probably  of  Solutrean  age.  Stations 
of  such  richness  are  not  particularly  rare,  and  the  stations  are 
numerous.  In  France  alone  500  Magdalenian  stations  have  been 
determined. 

Clear  stratigraphic  relations  have  also  been  observed  again 
and  again.  A  few  examples  are : 

Castillo  Cave,  Santander,  Spain,  implement  bearing  layers  separated 
by  strata  of  sterile  natural  debris:  1,  Aeheulean;  2,  3,  4,  early,  middle, 
and  late  Mousterian;  5,  early  Aurignacian;  6,  7,  8,  late  Aurignacian; 
9,  Solutrean;  10,  11,  early  and  late  Magdalenian;  12,  Azilian;  13, 
Copper. 

At  St.  Acheul:  1,  limestone;  2,  gravel,  early  Chellean;  3,  sand,  late 
Chellean;  4,  loam,  early  Aeheulean;  5,  flood  sand;  6,  loess;  7,  late 
Aeheulean;  8,  pebbles,  Mousterian;  9,  loess;  10,  Upper  Palaeolithic. 

At  Mas  d’Azil,  at  the  foot  of  the  Pyrenees:  1,  gravelly  soil;  2, 
middle  Magdalenian;  3,  flood  loam;  4,  upper  Magdalenian;  5,  flood 
loam;  6,  Azilian;  7,  early  Neolithic;  8,  full  Neolithic  and  Bronze;  9, 
Iron. 

At  Ofnet  cave,  Bavaria :  1,  rocks ;  2,  sand,  65  cm.  deep ;  3,  4, 
Aurignacian,  20  cm. ;  5,  Solutrean,  20  cm. ;  6,  Magdalenian,  15-20  cm. ; 
7,  Azilian,  with  two  nests  of  skulls,  5  cm.;  8,  Neolithic,  53  cm.;  9, 
Bronze  and  Iron,  32  cm. 

At  La  Ferrassie  cave:  1,  rocks  and  sand,  40  cm.  deep;  2,  Aeheulean, 
50  cm.;  3,  Mousterian,  with  skeleton,  50  cm.;  4,  early  Aurignacian, 
20  cm.;  5,  middle  Aurignacian,  50  cm.;  6,  rock  fragments,  35  cm.;  7, 
late  Aurignacian,  35  cm.;  rock  and  soil,  120  cm. 

At  first  inspection  Paheolithie  relics  seem  scarcely  distin¬ 
guishable.  They  are  all  of  flint,  chert,  or  similar  stone ;  are  all 
chipped  and  therefore  more  or  less  rough,  and  consist  of  forms 
meant  for  cutting,  scraping,  and  piercing.  But  a  closer  exami- 


158 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


nation  reveals  differences  in  their  shapes  and  fundamental  dif¬ 
ferences  in  the  method  of  their  manufacture.  The  technique 
employed  in  the  fashioning  of  artifacts  is  more  significant  than 
their  appearance,  and  it  is  by  directing  attention  to  the  process 
that  one  can  classify  these  “fossils  of  civilization’7  with  accu¬ 
racy. 

Chellean. — In  the  Chellean  period  there  was  made  substan¬ 
tially  one  type  of  implement,  a  sort  of  rude  pick,  almond  or 
wedge  shaped.  It  is  often  somewhat  pointed,  although  rarely 
very  sharp.  The  butt  end  may  be  rounded,  some  of  the  original 
surface  of  the  cobble  or  nodule  of  flint  being  left  for  con¬ 
venience  of  the  hand  in  grasping  the  implement  (Fig.  18,  a). 
This  tool  is  known  as  the  ‘ 1  Chellean  pick. 7  7  The  Germans  often 
call  it  faust-keil  or  “fist  wedge77  and  the  French  have  coined 
the  expressive  epithet  coup-de-poing  or  “blow  of  the  fist.77  The 
Chellean  pick  averages  from  four  to  six  inches  in  length,  some¬ 
what  less  in  breadth,  and  weighs  perhaps  from  a  quarter  to  a 
full  pound.  It  would  have  made  an  effective  rude  weapon. 
When  firmly  grasped  and  well  directed,  it  could  easily  crush  a 
skull.  It  might  serve  to  split  wood,  hack  limbs  from  trees, 
butcher  large  game,  and  perhaps  roughly  dress  hides.  It  would 
not  do  any  one  of  these  things  with  neatness  and  accuracy,  but 
neatness  and  accuracy  were  qualities  to  which  early  Palaeolithic 
men  paid  little  attention.  This  universal  Chellean  tool  may  be 
described  as  a  combined  knife,  saw,  ax,  scraper,  and  pick,  per¬ 
forming  the  various  functions  of  these  implements  with  notable 
crudities  but  efficiently  enough  when  wielded  with  muscular 
strength. 

The  Chellean  pick  was  made  by  striking  a  round  or  oval 
nodule  of  flint  with  another  stone  and  knocking  off  pieces.  Most 
of  the  detached  flakes  were  large,  as  shown  by  the  surfaces  from 
which  they  came  off;  perhaps  most  of  the  chips  averaged  a 
square  inch.  Anything  like  fine  work  or  evenness  of  outline 
was  therefore  out  of  question.  One  can  imagine  that  many  tools 
were  spoiled,  or  broken  in  two,  by  the  knocks  to  which  they 
were  subjected  in  their  manufacture.  The  flakes  struck  off  fell 
to  the  ground  and  were  discarded.  If  the  workman  was  suffi¬ 
ciently  skilful,  and  luck  stayed  with  him,  he  would  before  long 
be  holding  the  sort  of  implement  that  has  been  described.  Not 


Fig.  18.  Stone  implements  illustrating  the  principal  types  of  Palaeolithic  chipping,  a,  Chellean  pick,  a  roughly  flaked 
core;  b,  Mousterian  scraper,  a  flake  with  retouched  edge;  c,  Solutrean  blade,  evened  by  retouching  over  its  entire  surface; 
d,  Magdalenian  knife,  a  flake  detached  at  one  blow.  For  comparison,  e,  an  obsidian  knife  or  razor  from  Mexico,  made  by 
the  same  process  as  d. 


160 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


more  than  a  few  dozen  strokes  of  the  hammer  stone  would  be 
required  to  produce  it. 

Some  attempt  has  been  made  to  distinguish  variant  forms  of 
Chellean  tools,  such  as  scrapers,  planers,  and  knives.  But  some 
of  these  identifications  of  particular  types  are  uncertain,  and  at 
best,  the  differences  between  the  types  are  slight.  It  may  be 
said  with  approximate  accuracy  that  the  long  Chellean  period 
possessed  only  the  one  tool ;  that  this  is  the  first  definitely  shaped 
tool  known  to  have  been  made  by  human  hands ;  and  that  it 
is  therefore  the  concrete  evidence  of  the  first  stage  of  that  long 
development  which  we  call  civilization.1 

Acheulean. — The  Acheulean  period  brings  to  light  a  growing 
specialization  of  forms  and  some  new  types.  Rude  scrapers, 
knives,  borers,  can  be  distinguished.  The  flakes  struck  off  are 
finer  than  in  the  Chellean  and  the  general  workmanship  averages 
higher;  but  through  the  whole  of  the  Acheulean  there  is  no  new 
process.  The  Chellean  methods  of  manufacture  are  improved 
without  an  invention  being  added  to  them. 

Mousterian. — In  the  Mousterian  period  a  retrogression  would 
at  first  sight  seem  to  have  occurred.  Tools  become  smaller,  less 
regular  in  outline,  and  are  worked  on  one  side  only.  The  whole 
Mousterian  period  scarcely  presents  a  single  new  type  of  im¬ 
plement  of  such  all-around  serviceability  as  the  Chellean  pick. 
Nevertheless  the  degeneration  is  only  in  the  appearance  of  the 
implements.  Actually  they  are  made  by  a  new  process,  which 
is  more  advanced  than  that  followed  in  the  Chellean  and 
Acheulean.  In  these  earlier  periods  flakes  were  struck  off  until 
the  kernel  of  stone  that  remained  was  of  the  shape  desired  for 
the  tool.  The  Mousterian  technique  is  distinguished  by  using 
the  flake  instead  of  the  core.  This  is  the  cause  of  Mousterian 
tools  being  generally  smaller  and  lighter. 

Secondly,  when  the  flake  dulled  by  use,  its  edge  was  renewed 
by  fine  chipping.  The  pieces  detached  in  this  secondary  chip¬ 
ping  are  so  small  that  it  would  have  been  difficult  to  knock  them 
off  and  maintain  any  regularity  of  edge,  for  to  detach  a  chip  by 
a  blow  means  violent  contact.  If  the  blow  is  a  bit  feeble,  the 
chip  that  comes  off  is  too  small.  If  the  artifact  is  struck  too 

1  A  Pre-Chellean  period,  without  large  picks,  and  associated  with  the 
Second  Interglacial  fauna  (§  69,  214),  is  recognized  by  some  specialists. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  HUMAN  CIVILIZATION  1G1 


hard,  too  large  a  chip  flies  off  and  the  implement  is  ruined. 
Fine  chips  are  better  worked  off  by  pressure  than  by  impact. 
A  point  is  laid  upon  the  surface  near  the  edge.  When  this 
point  is  pressed  down  at  the  proper  angle  and  with  proper  firm¬ 
ness,  a  scale  flies  off.  With  some  practice  the  scales  can  be  de¬ 
tached  almost  equal  in  size.  The  point  may  be  of  softer  mate¬ 
rial  than  the  stone.  It  is  in  the  nature  of  flint,  and  of  all  stones 
that  approach  glass  in  their  structure,  that  they  break  easily 
under  pressure  in  definite  planes  or  surfaces.  Modern  tribes 
that  still  work  flint  generally  employ  as  a  pressing  tool  a  piece 
of  bone  or  horn  which  comes  to  a  somewhat  rounded  point.  This 
is  usually  attached  to  the  end  of  a  stick,  to  enable  a  better  grip 
of  the  working  tool,  the  butt  end  being  clamped  under  the  elbow. 
A  tool  of  the  same  sort  may  have  been  employed  in  the  Paheo- 
litliic.  The  process  of  detaching  the  scales  or  secondary  flakes 
by  pressure  is  known  as  1 ‘retouching.”  Retouching  allows 
finer  control  than  strokes  delivered  with  a  stone.  The  result  is 
that  Mousterian  implements,  when  at  their  best,  possess  truer 
edges,  and  also  greater  variety  of  forms  adapted  to  particular 
uses,  than  those  of  preceding  ages  (Fig.  18,6). 

In  spite  of  their  insignificant  appearance,  Mousterian  tools 
accordingly  show  advance  in  two  points.  First,  the  flake  is  used. 
Secondly,  two  processes  instead  of  one  are  followed;  the  knock¬ 
ing  off  of  the  flake  followed  by  its  retouching. 

Aurignacian. — With  the  Mousterian  the  Lower  Palaeolithic 
has  ended.  In  several  activities  of  life,  such  as  art  and  religion, 
the  Upper  Palaeolithic  represents  a  great  advance  over  the 
Lower  Palaeolithic.  Yet  it  seems  that  the  mental  energies  of 
the  Aurignacian  people  must  have  been  pretty  well  absorbed  by 
their  new  occupations  and  inventions,  for  their  tools  are  largely 
the  same  retouched  flakes  as  those  the  Mousterian  had  already 
employed.  The  Aurignacian  carried  on  the  stone  technique  of 
the  Mousterian  much  as  the  Acheulean  previously  had  carried 
on  that  of  the  Chellean. 

Solutrean. — The  Solutrean  seems  to  have  been  a  relatively 
brief  period,  and  to  have  remained  localized,  for  implements 
dating  from  it  are  the  scarcest  of  any  from  the  six  divisions  of 
the  Old  Stone  Age.  There  was  a  distinct  advance  of  interest 
in  stone  work  during  the  Solutrean.  The  process  of  retouching, 


162 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


without  being  fundamentally  altered,  was  evidently  much  better 
controlled  than  before.  The  best  Solutrean  workers  were  re¬ 
touching  both  sides  of  their  tools  instead  of  one  side  only,  as 
in  the  past,  and  working  over  not  only  the  edge  or  point  but 
the  entire  surface  of  their  artifacts.  One  of  the  characteristic 
implements  of  their  time  was  a  laurel-leaf-shaped  blade  which 
has  often  been  considered  a  spear  point,  but  would  also  have 
been  an  effective  knife  and  may  often  have  been  used  as  such. 
This  has  the  surface  of  both  sides,  from  tip  to  butt,  finished  in 
even  retouching,  and  is  equaled  in  excellence  of  workmanship 
only  by  the  best  of  the  spear  points  chipped  by  modern  savages 
(Fig.  18,  c). 

Of  course  this  was  not  the  only  stone  implement  which  the 
Solutrean  people  knew.  They  made  points  with  a  single  shoulder 
at  the  butt,  as  if  for  mounting,  and  had  crude  forms  which 
represented  the  types  of  earlier  periods.  This  partial  conserva¬ 
tism  is  in  accord  with  the  general  observation  already  stated, 
that  lower  types  tend  to  persist  even  after  higher  ones  have  been 
invented;  and  that  because  a  period  is  determined  by  its  best 
products  it  by  no  means  follows  that  simpler  ones  are  lacking. 

Magdalenian. — The  sixth  period  of  the  Old  Stone  Age,  the 
Magdalenian,  resembles  the  Mousterian  in  seeming  at  first  glance 
to  show  a  retrograde  development.  The  retouching  process  was 
carried  out  with  less  skill,  perhaps  because  the  Magdalenians 
were  devoting  themselves  with  more  interest  to  bone  than  to 
stone.  Magdalenian  retouched  implements  are  less  completely 
worked  out  and  less  beautifully  regular  than  those  of  Solutrean 
times.  One  reason  for  this  decline  was  that  another  technique 
was  coming  to  prevail.  This  technique  had  begun  to  come  into 
use  earlier,  but  its  typical  development  was  Magdalenian.  It 
was  a  process  which,  on  account  of  its  simplicity,  once  it  was 
mastered,  was  tending  to  make  the  art  of  retouching  unnecessary. 
This  new  method  was  the  trick  of  detaching,  from  a  suitable 
block  of  flint,  long  straight-edged  flakes,  by  a  single  blow,  some¬ 
what  on  the  principle  by  which  a  cake  of  ice  can  be  split  evenly 
by  a  well  guided  stroke  of  the  pick.  The  typical  Magdalenian 
implement  of  stone  is  a  thin  flake  several  inches  long,  triangular 
or  polygonal  in  cross  section ;  in  other  words,  a  long  narrow 
prism  (Fig.  18,  d). 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  HUMAN  CIVILIZATION  163 


To  detach  such  a  flake,  flint  of  rather  even  grain  is  necessary, 
and  the  blow  that  does  the  work  must  be  delivered  on  a  precise 
spot,  at  a  precise  angle,  and  within  rather  narrow  limits  of 
force.  This  means  that  the  hammer  or  striking  tool  cannot  well 
come  in  direct  contact  with  the  flint.  A  short  pointed  piece, 
something  like  a  nail  or  a  carpenter’s  punch,  and  probably  made 
in  the  prehistoric  days  of  horn  or  bone,  is  set  on  a  suitable  spot 
near  the  edge  of  the  block  of  flint,  and  is  then  tapped  smartly 
with  the  hammer  stone.  A  single  stroke  slices  off  the  desired 


Fig.  19.  Flakes  struck  from  a  core  and  reassembled.  Modern  work¬ 
manship  in  Magdalenian  technique. 

flake.  The  sharp  edges  left  on  the  block  where  the  flake  has 
flown  off  can  be  used  to  start  adjacent  flakes,  and  thus  all  the 
way  round  the  block,  the  workman  progressing  farther  and  far¬ 
ther  in,  until  nearly  the  whole  of  his  core  has  been  split  off  into 
strips. 

This  Magdalenian  process,  which  was  in  use  ten,  fifteen,  and 
perhaps  twenty  thousand  years  ago,  survived,  or  was  reinvented, 
in  modern  times.  It  is  only  a  few  years  ago  that  flints  were 
being  struck  off  by  English  workmen  for  use  on  flintlock  muskets 
exported  to  Africa.  The  modern  Englishman  worked  with  a 
steel  hammer  instead  of  a  bone  rod  and  cobblestone,  but  his 
technique  was  the  same.  Figure  19  shows  the  complete  lot  of 
flakes  into  which  a  block  has  been  split,  and  which  were  sub- 


164 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


sequently  laid  together  so  as  to  reform  the  stone  in  its  original 
shape.  Similar  flakes  made  of  obsidian,  a  volcanic  glass  similar 
to  flint  in  its  properties,  are  still  being  produced  in  the  Indian 
districts  of  interior  Mexico  for  use  as  razors  (Fig.  18,  e). 

The  Magdalenian  method  of  flint  working  gives  the  smoothest 
and  sharpest  edge.  It  is  not  adapted  for  making  heavy  instru¬ 
ments,  but  it  yields  an  admirable  knife.  The  process  is  also 
expeditious. 

Summary. — The  successive  steps  in  the  art  of  stone  working 
in  the  Palaeolithic  may  be  summarized  thus: 

Chellean:  Coarse  flakes  detached  by  blows  from  the  core,  which  be¬ 
comes  the  implement. 

Acheulean :  Same  jDrocess  applied  to  more  varied  forms. 

Monsterian:  Flake  detached  by  a  blow  is  sharpened  into  a  tool  by 
retouching  by  pressure  on  one  side  only. 

Aurignacian :  Same  with  improved  retouching  applied. 

Solutrean:  Both  surfaces  of  implement  wholly  retouched. 

Magdalenian :  Prismatic  flake,  detached  by  a  blow  transmitted 
through  a  point. 

73.  Other  Materials:  Bone  and  Horn 

Stone  implements  must  perhaps  always  remain  in  the  fore¬ 
ground  of  our  understanding  of  the  Old  Stone  Age  because  they 
were  made  so  much  more  numerously  than  other  objects,  or  at 
any  rate  have  been  preserved  so  much  more  abundantly,  that 
they  will  supply  us  with  the  bulk  of  our  evidence.  At  the  same 
time  it  would  be  an  error  to  believe  that  the  life  of  these  men 
of  long  ago  was  filled  with  the  making  and  using  of  stone  tools 
to  the  exclusion  of  everything  else.  Gradually  during  the  last 
fifty  years,  through  unremittingly  patient  explorations  and  the 
piecing  of  one  small  discovery  to  another,  there  has  accumulated 
a  fair  body  of  knowledge  of  other  sides  of  the  life  of  Palaeolithic 
men.  There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  as  time  goes  on  we 
shall  learn  more  and  more  about  them,  and  thus  be  able  to 
reconstruct  a  reasonably  complete  and  vivid  picture  of  their 
behavior. 

Implements  of  bone  and  horn  are  next  most  abundant  after 
those  of  stone,  but  it  is  significant  that  the  Lower  Palaeolithic 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  HUMAN  CIVILIZATION  165 


still  dispensed  with  these  materials.  In  the  Cliellean  and 
Acheulean  stations,  although  broken  bones  of  devoured  animals 
occur,  bone  was  not  shaped.  In  the  Mousterian  this  material 
first  came  into  use,  but  as  yet  only  as  so-called  “anvils”  on 
which  to  chip  flint  or  cut,  and  not  as  true  tools. 

One  of  the  changes  that  most  prominently  mark  the  passage 
from  the  Lower  to  the  Upper  Palaeolithic  is  the  sudden  develop¬ 
ment  in  the  use  of  bone  at  the  beginning  of  the  Aurignacian, 
and  then  of  reindeer  horn.  These  materials  came  more  and  more 
into  favor  as  time  went  on.  The  Aurignacians  had  bone  awls 
or  pins,  polishers,  paint  tubes  of  hollowed  reindeer  leg  bone, 
and  points  with  a  grooved  base  for  hafting,  generally  construed 
as  javelin  heads.  In  the  Solutrean,  eyed  needles  were  added. 
The  greatest  development  was  attained  in  the  Magdalenian. 
Bone  javelin  and  spear  heads  were  now  made  in  a  variety  of 
forms,  with  bases  pointed,  beveled,  or  grooved.  Hammers, 
chisels  or  wedges,  and  perforators  were  added  to  the  list  of  bone 
tools.  Whistles  and  perhaps  flutes  were  blown.  Reindeer  antler 
was  employed  for  carved  and  perforated  lengths  of  horn,  “rods 
of  command”  or  magic,  they  are  usually  called;  as  well  as  for 
harpoons  and  throwers,  to  be  discussed  below. 

By  the  close  of  the  Palceolithic,  objects  of  organic  substances 
began  to  approach  in  frequency  those  of  flint.  This  may  well 
have  been  a  sort  of  preparation  for  the  grinding  and  polishing 
of  stone  which  is  the  distinctive  technique  of  the  New  Stone  Age. 
Bone  cannot  well  be  chipped  or  retouched.  It  must  be  cut, 
ground,  or  rubbed  into  shape.  The  Neolithic  people  therefore 
may  be  said  to  have  extended  to  stone  a  process  which  their 
predecessors  of  the  Upper  Palaeolithic  were  familiar  with  but 
had  failed  to  apply  to  the  harder  substance. 

74.  Dress 

The  slender  bone  needle  provided  with  an  eye  which  the 
Solutrean  and  Magdalenian  added  to  the  primitive  awl  implies 
thread  and  sewing.  It  may  be  concluded  therefore  that,  at  least 
from  the  middle  of  the  Upper  Palaeolithic  on,  the  people  of 
Europe  went  clothed  in  some  sort  of  fitted  garments.  It  would 
be  going  too  far  to  assert  that  the  Neandertal  men  ran  about 


1GG 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


naked  as  tlie  lower  animals.  Several  inventions  which  they  had 
made  compel  us  to  attribute  to  them  enough  intelligence  to  lead 
them  to  cover  themselves  with  skins  when  they  felt  cold.  But 
they  may  have  been  too  improvident,  or  habituated  to  discom¬ 
fort,  to  trouble  even  to  dress  hides.  At  any  rate  there  is  no 
positive  indication  that  they  regularly  clothed  themselves.  By 
contrast,  the  sewing  of  the  Upper  Palaeolithic  Cro-Magnons 
marked  a  considerable  advance. 

Ornament  may  have  been  earlier  than  clothing.  The  paint 
of  the  Aurignacians  decorated  their  own  bodies  and  those  of 
their  dead.  About  their  necks  and  waists  they  hung  rows  of 
perforated  shells  and  teeth.  More  of  these  have  been  found  on 
the  skeletons  of  males  than  of  females.  By  the  Magdalenian, 
there  was  sophistication  enough  to  lead  to  the  carving  of  arti¬ 
ficial  shells  and  teeth  out  of  ivory;  and  amber  was  beginning 
to  be  transported  from  the  German  coast  to  Southern  Prance. 

75.  Harpoons  and  Weapons 

Towards  the  end  of  the  Upper  Pakeolithic,  in  the  Magda¬ 
lenian,  the  harpoon  came  into  extensive  use.  The  shafts  have 
of  course  long  since  decayed,  but  many  of  the  reindeer  antler 
heads  have  remained  intact.  At  first  these  were  notched  with 
barbs  along  one  edge  only.  In  the  later  Magdalenian  the  barbs 
were  cut  on  both  sides.  The  harpoon  differs  from  the  simple 
spear  or  javelin  in  having  its  head  detachable  from  the  shaft. 
The  two  are  fitted  together  by  a  socket.  If  the  prey,  be  it  fish 
or  mammal,  is  not  killed  by  the  first  throw,  its  struggles  to 
escape  shake  the  shaft  loose,  while  the  barbs  hold  the  head  firmly 
imbedded  in  its  body.  A  line  is  attached  to  the  head  and  tied 
to  the  shaft  or  held  in  the  hand  of  the  hunter.  The  animal  is 
thus  kept  from  escaping.  During  the  Magdalenian  the  line  was 
kept  from  slipping  off  the  head  by  one  or  two  knobs  near  the 
butt.  In  the  subsequent  Azilian  period  the  head  was  perforated, 
as  is  the  modern  Eskimo  practice.  The  harpoon  is  really  a 
rather  complicated  instrument :  it  consists  of  at  least  three  pieces 
— head,  shaft,  and  line. 

Another  device  which  the  Magdalenians  shared  with  the 
Aztecs,  the  Eskimo,  and  some  other  modern  peoples,  is  the  spear 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  HUMAN  CIVILIZATION  167 


thrower  or  atlatl.  This  is  a  sort  of  rod  or  handle,  one  end  of 
which  is  grasped  by  the  fingers  while  the  other  engages  the  butt 
end  of  the  harpoon  or  dart.  The  hand  only  steers  the  shaft  at 
the  beginning  of  its  flight :  the  propulsion  comes  from  the 
thrower.  The  instrument  may  therefore  be  described  as  a  device 
for  artificially  lengthening  the  human  arm  and  thus  imparting 
greater  velocity  and  length  of  flight  to  the  weapon.  There  is 
without  doubt  considerable  ingenuity  involved  in  this  apparatus, 
both  in  its  invention  and  in  its  successful  use.  A  person  un¬ 
skilled  in  bodily  movements  would  never  hit  upon  the  inven¬ 
tion;  nor  could  a  race  of  high  native  dexterity  acquire  pro¬ 
ficiency  in  the  art  of  hunting  with  the  thrower  until  each  indi¬ 
vidual  was  willing  to  practise  for  a  considerable  period.  It  may 
once  more  be  concluded,  accordingly,  that  by  the  end  of  the 
Palaeolithic,  civilization  had  developed  to  a  point  where  men 
were  much  readier  to  undergo  protracted  training  and  forbear¬ 
ance  than  they  had  been  at  the  beginning  of  the  period. 

One  instrument  that  we  are  wont  to  associate  with  the  begin¬ 
nings  of  civilization,  because  of  its  almost  universal  employment 
by  savages  of  to-day,  is  the  bow  and  arrow.  So  strong  has  the 
preconception  been  that  the  Palaeolithic  peoples  must  have  been 
like  modern  savages,  that  time  and  time  again  it  has  been  as¬ 
sumed  that  they  possessed  the  bow.  There  is  no  convincing  evi¬ 
dence  to  show  that  this  was  so,  and  a  good  deal  of  negative  evi¬ 
dence  to  establish  that  they  were  unacquainted  with  the  weapon. 
All  the  Palaeolithic  remains  of  flint,  bone,  or  horn,  which  at 
times  have  been  interpreted  as  arrow  points,  are  more  conserva¬ 
tively  explained  as  knives  or  heads  of  darts.  The  prevailing 
opinion  is  that  the  bow  was  not  invented  until  the  Neolithic. 
This  would  make  the  weapon  only  about  ten  thousand  years  old 
— a  hoary  antiquity,  indeed,  but  recent  as  compared  with  the 
knife,  the  spear,  and  even  the  harpoon.  The  reason  for  this 
lateness  in  the  invention  of  the  bow  and  arrow  is  probably  to  be 
sought  in  the  delicacy  of  the  instrument.  It  is  not  essentially 
more  complex  than  the  harpoon,  certainly  not  more  complex 
than  the  harpoon  impelled  by  the  spear  thrower.  But  it  involves 
much  finer  adjustments.  A  poorly  made  harpoon  is  of  course 
inferior  to  a  well-made  one,  but  may  be  measurably  effective. 
It  may  retrieve  game  half  the  time.  But  a  bow  which  falls 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


'  168 

below  a  certain  standard  will  not  shoot  at  all,  or  will  shoot  so 
feebly  as  to  have  a  zero  efficiency.  In  fact,  one  of  the  things 
that  students  of  the  beginnings  of  culture  have  long  been  puzzled 
about  is  how  the  bow  and  arrow  could  have  been  invented.  Most 
other  inventions  can  be  traced  through  a  series  of  steps,  each 
of  which,  although  incomplete,  achieved  a  certain  utility  of  its 
own.  But,  other  than  toys  or  musical  instruments,  no  implement 
has  yet  been  found,  or  even  satisfactorily  imagined,  which  was 
not  yet  a  bow,  which  would  still  serve  a  purpose,  and  which, 
by  addition  or  improvement,  could  give  rise  to  the  bow. 

76.  Wooden  Implements 

Wood  is  likely  to  have  been  used  by  primitive  men  for  one 
purpose  or  another  from  the  very  earliest  times.  Even  “half 
men”  of  the  “missing  link”  type,  it  may  be  believed,  would 
in  case  of  need  pick  up  a  stick  or  wrench  a  limb  from  a  tree 
to  serve  them  as  a  club.  But  we  do  not  know  when  human 
beings  first  began  to  fashion  wood  into  definite  implements  by 
working  it  with  their  stone  tools.  Wood  is  too  perishable  a 
substance  to  have  stood  any  chance  of  being  preserved  from  so 
long  distant  a  past. 

Our  knowledge  of  the  first  employment  of  wood  is  indirect. 
Many  of  the  Mousterian  chipped  flakes  are  of  such  size  and  shape 
that  they  could  have  been  operated  much  more  effectively  had 
they  been  mounted  on  a  handle.  Possibly  therefore  the  process 
of  hafting  or  handling  had  come  to  be  practised  in  the  Mous¬ 
terian,  although  there  is  no  specific  evidence  to  this  effect.  In 
the  Upper  Palaeolithic,  wood  was  certainly  used  to  a  considerable 
extent.  The  harpoon  and  dart  heads,  for  instance,  must  have 
had  wooden  shafts. 

A  true  ax  is  not  known  from  the  Old  Stone  Age  and  seems 
to  have  been  invented  in  the  Neolithic.  The  distinctive  factor 
of  the  instrument,  upon  which  its  utility  largely  depends,  is  the 
straightness  and  smoothness  of  the  edge;  and  such  an  edge  is 
best  attained  by  the  grinding  process.  Even  the  unground  axes 
of  the  earliest  Neolithic  depended  on  a  single  stroke  to  provide 
them  with  the  required  straight  cutting  edge.  We  may  believe, 
therefore,  that  the  Pakeolithic  peoples  worked  wood  in  the  man- 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  HUMAN  CIVILIZATION  1G9- 


ner  familiar  to  us  from  tlie  practices  of  many  modern  savage 
races.  They  split  it,  rubbed  it,  and  burned  it  into  shape,  rather 
than  trying  to  chop  it. 


77.  Fire 

One  of  the  most  fundamental  of  human  arts  is  the  use  of  fire. 
It  is  also  one  of  the  most  ancient.  Its  occurrence  is  easily  traced, 
at  any  rate  in  deposits  that  have  not  been  disturbed  by  nature, 
through  the  presence  of  charred  bones,  lumps  of  charcoal,  and 
layers  of  ash.  Charcoal  crumbles  easily,  but  its  fragments  are 
practically  imperishable.  Its  presence  in  considerable  quantities 
in  any  station,  particularly  if  the  coal  is  accumulated  in  pockets, 
is  therefore  sure  proof  that  the  people  who  occupied  the  site 
burned  fires  for  warmth,  or  cooking,  or  both  purposes.  The  use 
of  fire  has  been  established  throughout  the  part  of  the  Palaeo¬ 
lithic  when  men  lived  in  caves  and  under  rock  shelters;  that  is, 
during  the  Mousterian  and  Upper  Palaeolithic. 

The  Chellean  and  Acheulean  deposits  are  so  much  older  and 
more  open,  and  in  many  cases  have  been  washed  over  so  much  by 
rainfall  and  by  streams,  that,  if  the  men  of  these  periods  did 
use  fire,  as  they  may  well  have  done,  its  evidences  might  have 
been  pretty  generally  obliterated. 

Whether  early  Palaeolithic  men  knew  how  to  make  fire,  or 
whether  they  only  found  it  and  kept  it  alive,  is  more  difficult 
to  say.  They  could  easily  have  acquired  it  in  the  first  place 
from  trees  struck  by  lightning  or  from  other  occasional  natural 
agencies.  Then,  recognizing  its  value,  they  may  well  have  nursed 
it  along,  lighting  one  hearth  from  another.  Yet  at  some  time 
in  the  Paheolithic  the  art  of  producing  fire  at  will,  by  friction 
between  two  pieces  of  wood,  is  almost  certain  to  have  been  in¬ 
vented.  One  may  infer  this  from  the  general  similarity  of  level 
of  Magdalenian  civilization  to  that  of  modern  savages,  all  of 
whom  practise  the  art  of  ignition.  But  in  the  nature  of  things 
it  would  be  difficult  to  find  evidence  bearing  on  this  point  from 
more  than  ten  thousand  years  ago.  It  can  be  assumed  that  man 
is  likely  to  have  lived  first  for  a  long  period  in  a  condition  in 
which  he  knew  and  used  and  preserved  fire,  yet  was  not  able  to 
produce  it. 


170 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


78.  Houses 

Although  Palaeolithic  man  worked  so  much  in  stone,  he  did  not 
build  in  it.  Hence  our  knowledge  of  the  kinds  of  shelters  he 
made  for  himself  is  almost  nil.  There  are  Upper  Palaeolithic 
“tectiform”  paintings  which  look  as  if  they  might  be  attempts 
to  depict  houses.  It  is  clear,  moreover,  that  in  this  period  the 
general  development  of  the  mechanical  arts  was  sufficiently 
advanced  to  allow  of  the  construction  of  some  sort  of  rude 
edifices. 

It  is  conceivable  that  as  far  back  as  the  Lower  Palaeolithic 
simple  shelters  of  branches  were  constructed,  or  that  skins  may 
have  been  hung  over  a  few  poles  to  keep  off  wind  and  rain.  On 
account  of  the  perishable  nature  of  the  materials  involved,  it 
happens  that  there  is  no  proof  either  for  or  against  such  a  sup¬ 
position.  It  is  possible  that  in  time,  when  patient  excavations 
shall  have  revealed  some  particularly  well  preserved  site,  the 
holes  may  yet  be  found  in  which  the  posts  of  a  Palaeolithic  hut 
were  once  set.  In  case  of  a  fire,  the  carbonized  stumps  might 
prove  to  have  been  preserved  in  place;  or  the  butts  of  the  posts 
might  have  gradually  rotted  away  and  the  space  once  occupied 
by  them  have  become  filled  with  an  earthy  material  of  different 
color  and  consistency  from  the  surrounding  soil.  In  this  lucky 
event,  even  the  size  and  shape  of  the  house  might  be  recon¬ 
structed  from  the  relative  positions  of  the  post  holes.  From 
evidence  of  just  this  sort  some  interesting  ideas  have  actually 
been  obtained  as  to  the  houses  and  village  plan  of  Neolithic 
European  peoples.  Of  course,  the  chances  are  much  less  that 
remains  of  this  sort  would  be  preserved  from  the  Palaeolithic. 
But  the  method  would  be  equally  applicable  if  favorable  condi¬ 
tions  offered;  and  it  is  in  some  such  way  that  we  may  hope  in 
the  future  to  learn  a  little  about  the  earliest  habitations  that 
mankind  constructed.  In  any  event  the  example  serves  to  illus¬ 
trate  the  indirect  and  delicate  means  of  which  the  student  of 
prehistory  must  consistently  avail  himself  in  his  reconstructions 
of  the  past;  and  gives  reason  to  believe  that  all  that  has  been 
learned  about  early  man  in  the  last  fifty  years  is  very  little  in 
comparison  with  what  the  ensuing  generation  and  century  will 
bring  to  light. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  HUMAN  CIVILIZATION  171 


79.  Religion 

It  has  already  been  said  that  knowledge  of  religion,  a  non¬ 
material  thing,  can  be  preserved  from  the  remote  past  only  by 
the  most  roundabout  means.  It  is  conceivable  that  the  people 
of  the  Upper  Palaeolithic  spent  at  least  as  much  time  in  cere¬ 
monial  observances  as  in  working  flint.  Analogy  with  modern 
uncivilized  tribes  would  make  us  think  that  this  is  quite  likely. 
But  the  stone  tools  have  remained  lying  in  the  earth,  while  the 
religious  customs  went  out  of  use  thousands  of  years  ago  and 
the  beliefs  were  forgotten.  Yet  this  is  known :  As  far  back  as 
the  Mousterian,  thirty  thousand  years  ago,  certain  practices 
were  being  observed  by  the  Neandertal  race  of  western  Europe 
which  modern  savages  observe  in  obedience  to  the  dictates  of 
their  religion.  When  these  people  of  the  Mousterian  laid  away 
their  dead,  they  put  some  of  their  belongings  with  them.  When 
existing  nations  do  this,  it  is  invariably  in  connection  with  a 
belief  in  the  continued  existence  of  the  soul  after  death.  We 
may  reasonably  conclude  therefore  that  even  in  this  long  dis¬ 
tant  period  human  beings  had  arrived  at  a  crude  recognition 
of  the  difference  between  flesh  and  spirit;  in  short,  religion 
had  come  into  being.  Even  to  say  that  Neandertal  man  did  not 
know  whether  his  dead  were  dead,  implies  his  recognition  of 
something  different  from  life  in  the  body,  for  he  recognized  of 
course  that  the  body  had  become  different.  Whether  the  Nean¬ 
dertal  race  already  held  to  the  existence  of  spirits  distinct  from 
man  or  superior  to  him,  it  is  impossible  to  say. 

The  Upper  Palaeolithic  Cro-Magnon  peoples  laid  out  the 
bodies  of  their  dead  and  sometimes  folded  them.  They  also 
sometimes  painted  the  bodies,  and  buried  flint  implements  and 
food  in  the  graves.  That  is,  funerary  practices  were  becoming 
established.  We  may  assume  that  hand  in  hand  with  this  de¬ 
velopment  of  observances  there  went  a  growth  of  ritual  and 
belief. 


80.  Palaeolithic  Art 

The  highest  achievement  of  the  men  of  the  Old  Stone  Age  is 
their  art.  The  perfection  to  which  they  carried  this  art  is 


172 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


simply  astounding  in  view  of  the  comparative  meagerness  of 
their  civilization  otherwise.  It  is  also  remarkable  how  full- 
fledged  this  achievement  sprang  into  existence.  The  Lower 
Palaeolithic  seems  to  have  been  without  a  trace  of  art.  AVith 
the  Aurignacian,  simple  carving  and  painting  appear ;  and  while 
the  acme  of  accomplishment  was  not  reached  until  the  Magda- 
lenian,  the  essential  foundations  of  a  graphic  art  of  high  order 
were  laid  in  the  late  Aurignacian. 

The  Upper  Palaeolithic  people  carved  in  ivory,  bone,  and 
horn;  they  incised  or  engraved  on  flattened  and  rounded  sur¬ 
faces  of  the  same  material ;  and  they  carved  and  painted  the 
walls  of  caves.  They  modeled  at  times  in  clay  and  perhaps  in 
other  soft  materials,  and  may  have  drawn  or  painted  pictures 
on  skins  and  on  exposed  rock  surfaces,  for  all  we  know;  we  can 
judge  only  by  the  remains  that  have  actually  come  down  to  us. 
This  art  is  not  a  child-like,  struggling  attempt  to  represent 
objects  in  the  rough,  nor  is  it  a  mere  decorative  playing  with 
geometric  figures.  These  first  human  artists  set  boldly  to  work 
to  depict ;  and  while  their  technique  was  simple,  it  was  carried 
to  a  remarkably  high  degree  of  perfection.  A  few  bold  strokes 
gave  the  outlines  of  an  animal,  but  they  gave  it  with  such 
fidelity  that  the  species  can  often  be  recognized  at  a  glance.  The 
Cro-Magnon  people  must  have  developed  a  high  power  of  mental 
concentration  to  be  able  to  observe  and  reproduce  so  closely. 
The  most  gifted  individuals  perhaps  practised  assiduously  to 
attain  their  facility. 

Paleolithic  art  is  very  different  from  that  of  most  modern 
savages.  The  latter  often  work  out  decorative  patterns  of  some 
complexity,  richness,  and  esthetic  value,  but  when  they  attempt 
to  depict  nature,  they  usually  fail  conspicuously.  The  lines  are 
crude  and  wavering.  Any  head,  body,  and  tail  with  four  legs 
stands  for  almost  any  animal.  It  is  a  reasonable  representation 
of  an  abstraction  that  they  accomplish,  not  the  delineation  of 
what  is  characteristic  in  the  visible  form.  Both  observer  and 
painter,  among  most  living  savages,  are  supposed  to  know  be¬ 
forehand  that  the  drawing  represents  a  fox  and  not  a  bear.  At 
most,  some  symbols  are  added,  such  as  a  bushy  tail  for  a  fox 
or  a  fin  for  a  whale.  It  is  only  in  rare  cases  that  any  but  ad¬ 
vanced  nations  break  away  from  these  primitive  tendencies  and 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  HUMAN  CIVILIZATION  173 


learn  to  draw  things  as  they  really  appear.  The  ancient  Egyp¬ 
tians  developed  such  a  faculty,  and  among  savages  the  Bushmen 
are  remarkably  gifted,  but,  on  the  whole,  successful  realistic 
art  is  an  accomplishment  of  high  civilization.  It  is  therefore 
something  of  a  mystery  how  the  Cro-Magnon  men  of  the  Aurig- 
nacian  brought  themselves  to  do  so  well. 

In  sculpture  their  first  efforts  were  directed  upon  figurines. 


Fig.  20.  Limestone  statuette  from  Willendorf,  Austria.  Character¬ 
istic  of  Aurignacian  treatment  of  the  female  figure:  the  face  and  limbs 
are  abbreviated  or  only  indicated;  the  parts  concerned  with  reproduc¬ 
tion  are  exaggerated. 

These  mostly  represent  the  human  female.  The  head,  hands, 
and  feet  are  either  absent  or  much  abbreviated.  In  the  body, 
those  parts  having  to  do  with  reproduction  and  fecundity  are 
usually  heavily  exaggerated,  but  at  the  same  time  given  with 
considerable  skill  (Fig.  20).  It  is  likely  that  these  statuettes 
served  some  religious  cult.  At  any  rate,  the  carvings  in  three 
dimensions  often  represent  the  human  figure,  whereas  two- 
dimensional  drawings,  etchings,  and  paintings  mostly  represent 
animals  and  are  much  more  successful  than  the  human  outlines. 
In  the  Magdalenian,  miniature  sculpture  of  animals  was  added 
to  that  of  the  human  figure  (Fig.  21). 


174 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


Success  in  seizing  the  salient  outline  was  the  earliest  charac¬ 
teristic  of  the  paintings  and  drawings.  The  first  Aurignacian 
engravings  are  invariably  in  profile  and  usually  show  only  the 
two  legs  on  the  immediately  visible  side.  In  time  the  artists 
also  learned  to  suggest  typical  positions  and  movements — the 
motion  of  a  reindeer  lowering  its  head  to  browse,  the  way  an 
angry  bull  switches  his  tail  or  paws  the  ground,  the  curl  of  the 


Fig.  21.  Horse  carved  in  mammoth  ivory.  From  Lourdes,  France. 
The  spirited  portrayal  of  the  neck,  ears,  eyes,  and  mouth  parts  is  char¬ 
acteristic  of  Magdalenian  sculpture. 

end  of  an  elephant’s  trunk  (Figs.  22,  24).  In  the  Magdalenian, 
all  four  legs  are  usually  depicted,  and  the  profile,  although  re¬ 
maining  most  frequent,  as  it  is  most  characteristic,  is  no  longer 
the  only  aspect.  There  are  occasional  pictures  of  animals  from 
before  or  behind,  or  of  a  reindeer  with  its  head  turned  back¬ 
ward. 

There  are  also  some  devices  which  look  like  the  beginnings 
of  attempts  at  composition.  The  effect  of  a  row  of  reindeer  is 
produced  by  drawing  out  the  first  few  in  some  detail,  and  then 
suggesting  the  others  by  sketching  in  their  horns  (Fig.  23). 
Artists  were  no  longer  content,  in  the  Magdalenian,  always  to 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  HUMAN  CIVILIZATION  175 


do  each  animal  as  a  solitary,  static  unit.  They  were  trying,  with 
some  measure  of  success,  to  represent  the  animals  as  they  moved 
in  life  and  perhaps  to  combine  several  of  them  into  one  coherent 
picture  or  to  suggest  a  setting. 

By  this  time  they  had  also  acquired  considerable  ability  in 
handling  colors.  The  Aurignacian  and  Solutrean  artists  re¬ 
stricted  themselves  to  monochrome  effects.  They  engraved  or 
painted  outlines  and  sometimes  accentuated  these  by  filling  them 
in  with  pigment.  But  the  best  of  the  later  painters  in  the  Mag- 
dalenian — those,  for  instance,  who  left  their  frescoes  on  the  walls 


Fig.  22.  Engraving  of  a  charging  mammoth.  On  a  fragment  of 
ivory  tusk  found  at  La  Madeleine,  France.  While  the  artist’s  strokes 
were  crude,  he  was  able  to  depict  the  animal’s  action  with  remarkable 
vigor.  Note  the  roll  of  the  eye,  the  flapping  ears,  the  raised  tail  ex¬ 
pressive  of  anger. 

of  the  famous  cave  of  Altamira  in  Spain — used  three  or  four 
colors  at  once  and  blended  these  into  transition  tones. 

While  animals  constitute  the  subjects  of  probably  four-fifths 
of  the  specimens  of  Palaeolithic  art,  and  human  beings  most  of 
the  remainder,  representations  of  plants  and  unrealistic  decora¬ 
tive  designs  are  known.  The  latter  seem  to  have  begun  to  be 
specially  prevalent  in  the  latest  Magdalenian,  as  if  in  prepara¬ 
tion  of  the  conventionalized,  non-naturalistic  art  of  the  transi¬ 
tional  Azilian  and  Neolithic. 


176 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


81.  Summary  of  Advance  in  the  Palaeolithic 

The  history  of  civilization  has  herewith  been  outlined  from 
its  first  dim  beginnings  to  about  twelve  thousand  years  ago — 
say  to  the  neighborhood  of  10,000  B.C.,  as  the  historian  would 
put  it.  Progress  is  immensely  slow  at  the  outset,  hut  gradually 
speeds  up.  The  tabulation  in  Figure  25  summarizes  some  of  the 
principal  features  of  this  evolution.  This  diagram  does  not  pre¬ 
tend  to  be  complete ;  it  does  try  to  include  some  of  the  most 
important  and  representative  inventions,  arts,  and  accomplish¬ 
ments  of  the  Old  Stone  Age. 

Thus  it  appears  that  the  Cliellean  and  Acheulean  periods  are 
characterized  essentially  by  a  single  art,  that  of  chipping  imple- 


Fig.  23.  Magdalenian  engraving  of  a  herd  of  reindeer,  found  in  the 
grotto  of  La  Mairie,  France.  The  impressionistic  manner  enabled  the 
artist  to  suggest  rather  effectively  a  large  herd  while  drawing  out  only 
four  animals. 

ments  on  a  core  of  flint,  plus  perhaps  the  use  of  fire.  The  Mous- 
terian  evinces  progress :  stone  tools  are  now  made  from  the  flake 
as  well  as  the  core,  possibly  are  sometimes  liafted,  bone  is  occa¬ 
sionally  utilized,  and  there  are  the  first  indications  of  budding 
religion;  four  or  five  entries  are  required  to  represent  these 
culture  traits. 

The  greatest  advance  comes  from  the  Mousterian  to  the 
Aurignacian ;  in  other  words,  between  the  Lower  and  the  Upper 
Pakeolithic.  Three  times  as  many  accomplishments  are  listed 
as  in  the  Mousterian,  and  whole  series  of  new  inventions  are  now 
first  met  with :  body  ornaments,  bone  implements,  aesthetic 
products.  This  sudden  leap  in  the  figures  goes  far  to  signalize 
the  importance  of  the  division  between  the  Upper  and  the  Lower 
Pakeolithic.  In  the  Solutrean  and  Magdalenian  still  further 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  HUMAN  CIVILIZATION  177 


inventions  or  refinements  appear,  until,  when  the  Old  Stone 
Age  comes  to  a  close,1  the  stock  of  human  civilization  may  be 
described  as  perhaps  twenty  times  as  rich  as  at  the  beginning. 
These  figures  are  not  to  be  taken  too  literally.  The  tabulation 
could  easily  have  been  compiled  on  a  more  elaborate  basis.  But 
even  then  the  relative  proportion  of  culture  features  in  each 
period  would  remain  approximately  as  here  given.  And  as 


Fig.  24.  Magdalenian  engraving,  perhaps  a  composition:  browsing 
reindeer  among  grass,  reeds,  and  water.  Note  the  naturalistic  move¬ 
ment  suggested  by  the  legs  and  position  of  the  head.  Engraved  so  as 
to  encircle  a  piece  of  antler.  Found  at  Kesslerloch,  Switzerland. 

regards  the  general  fact  of  accumulation  of  civilization,  and  its 
range  and  nature,  the  diagram  may  be  accepted  as  substantially 
representative  of  what  happened. 

The  end  of  the  Palaeolithic  thus  sees  man  in  possession  of  a 
number  of  mechanical  arts  which  enable  him  to  produce  a  con¬ 
siderable  variety  of  tools  in  several  materials :  sees  him  control- 

i  A  period  known  as  the  Azilian,  dated  about  10,000-8,000  B.C.,  usually 
included  in  the  Palaeolithic,  is  discussed  in  chapter  XIV  in  connection  with 
a  review  of  the  Palaeolithic  outside  Europe  and  of  the  relations  between 
the  Palaeolithic  and  Neolithic. 


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Fig.  25.  Growth  of  civilization  during  the  Palaeolithic. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  HUMAN  CIVILIZATION  179 


ling  fire;  cooking  food;  wearing  clothes,  and  living  in  definite 
habitations;  probably  possessing  some  sort  of  social  grouping, 
order,  and  ideas  of  law  and  justice ;  clearly  under  the  influence 
of  some  kind  of  religion;  highly  advanced  in  the  plastic  arts; 
and  presumably  already  narrating  legends  and  singing  songs. 
In  short,  many  fundamental  elements  of  civilization  were  estab¬ 
lished.  It  is  true  that  the  sum  total  of  knowledge  and  accom¬ 
plishments  was  still  pitifully  small.  The  most  advanced  of  the 
Old  Stone  Age  men  perhaps  knew  and  could  do  about  one  thing 
for  every  hundred  that  we  know  and  can  do.  A  whole  array  of 
fundamental  inventions — the  bow  and  arrow,  pottery,  domesti¬ 
cation  of  animals  and  plants — had  not  yet  been  attempted,  and 
they  do  not  appear  on  the  scene  until  the  Neolithic.  But  in  spite 
of  the  enormous  gaps  remaining  to  be  filled  in  the  Neolithic  and 
in  the  historic  period,  it  does  seem  fair  to  say  that  many  of  the 
outlines  of  what  civilization  was  ultimately  to  be  had  been  sub¬ 
stantially  blocked  out  during  the  Upper  Palaeolithic.  Most  of 
the  framework  was  there,  even  though  but  a  small  fraction  of 
its  content  had  yet  been  entered. 


CHAPTER  VII 


HEREDITY,  CLIMATE,  AND  CIVILIZATION 

82.  Heredity. — 83.  Geographical  environment.- — 84.  Diet. — 85.  Agricul¬ 
ture. — 86.  Cultural  factors. — 87.  Cultural  distribution. — 88.  Historical  in¬ 
duction. 

82.  Heredity 

The  first  of  the  several  factors  through  which  it  is  logically 
possible  to  explain  the  life  and  conduct  and  customs  of  any 
people  is  race  or  heredity :  in  other  words,  the  inborn  tendencies, 
bodily  and  mental,  of  the  people  that  carry  these  customs.  At 
first  sight  it  may  seem  that  this  element  of  race  might  be  quite 
influential.  Since  peoples  differ  in  inherited  characteristics  of 
body — complexion,  features,  hair,  eye  color,  head  form,  and  the 
like — these  bodily  inherited  peculiarities  ought  to  be  accom¬ 
panied  by  mentally  inherited  traits,  such  as  greater  or  less  incli¬ 
nation  to  courage,  energy,  power  of  abstract  thought,  mechanical 
ingenuity,  musical  or  aesthetic  proclivities,  swift  reactions,  ability 
to  concentrate,  gift  of  expression.  Such  racial  mental  traits, 
again,  might  conceivably  be  expressed  in  the  conduct  and  cul¬ 
ture  of  each  people.  Races  born  to  a  greater  activity  of  the 
mechanical  faculties  would  achieve  more  or  higher  inventions, 
those  innately  gifted  in  the  direction  of  music  would  develop 
more  subtly  melodious  songs,  and  so  on. 

Yet  in  every  particular  case  it  is  difficult  or  impossible  to 
establish  by  incontrovertible  evidence  that  heredity  is  the  specific 
cause  of  this  accomplishment,  of  this  point  of  view,  or  of  this 
mode  of  life ;  that  it  is  the  determining  factor  to  such  and  such 
degree  of  such  and  such  customs.  This  is  not  a  denial  of  the 
probability  that  inborn  racial  differences  exist.  It  is  an  affirma¬ 
tion  of  the  difficulty,  discussed  in  Chapters  I,  IV,  and  Y,  of 
knowing  what  is  inborn;  and  more  specifically,  of  the  difficulty 

of  tracing  particular  customary  activities  back  to  particular 

180 


HEREDITY,  CLIMATE,  AND  CIVILIZATION  181 

racial  qualities.  The  problem  of  connecting  specific  race  traits 
with  specific  phenomena  of  culture  or  group  conduct,  such  as 
settled  life,  architecture  in  stone,  religious  symbolism,  and  the 
like, — of  determining  how  much  of  this  type  of  architecture  or 
symbolism  is  instinctive  in  the  race  and  how  much  of  it  is  the 
result  of  traditional  or  social  influences, — remains  unsolved. 

For  example,  should  one  try  to  apply  to  the  explanation  of 
the  mode  of  life  or  culture  of  the  Indians  of  the  Southwestern 
United  States  biological  facts,  such  as  their  head  form,  one 
would  be  confronted  by  the  difficulty  that  long  heads  are  char¬ 
acteristic  of  some  of  the  town-building  tribes,  or  Pueblos,  and 
also  of  some  of  the  tribes  living  in  brush  huts.  Broad  heads  are 
also  found  among  both  the  settled  and  nomadic  tribes.  The 
Pueblo  Taos  and  non-Pueblo  Pima  are  narrow-headed,  the 
Pueblo  Zuhi  and  non-Pueblo  Apache  broad-headed.  So  with  the 
pulse  rate,  which  has  been  already  mentioned  (§70)  as  un¬ 
usually  slow  among  the  Southwestern  Indians.  It  is  the  same 
for  the.  nomadic  Apache  who  lived  by  fighting,  and  for  the  Hopi 
and  Zuhi  who  are  famous  for  their  timidity  and  gentleness. 
Similar  cases  might  be  cited  almost  endlessly.  It  is  evident  that 
they  are  of  a  kind  with  the  lack  of  correspondence  between  race 
and  speech,  or  race  and  nationality,  among  the  European 
peoples. 


83.  Geographical  Environment 

When  it  comes  to  the  second  factor  by  which  culture  might 
theoretically  be  explained — physical  environment  or  geography 
— similar  difficulties  are  encountered. 

It  is  of  course  plain  that  a  primitive  tribe  under  the  equator 
would  never  invent  the  ice  box,  and  that  the  Eskimo  will  not 
keep  their  food  and  water  in  buckets  of  bamboo,  although  it  is 
possible  that  if  the  Eskimo  had  had  bamboo  carried  to  them  by 
ocean  currents,  they  would  have  been  both  glad  and  able  to  use 
it.  The  materials  and  opportunities  provided  by  nature  may 
be  made  use  of  by  each  people,  while  other  materials  not  being 
provided,  other  arts  or  customs  can  therefore  not  be  developed. 
But  evidently  this  correspondence  is  mainly  negative.  Not  per¬ 
forming  an  act  because  one  lacks  the  opportunity  by  no  means 


182 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


proves  that  the  opportunity  will  necessarily  lead  to  the  per: 
formance.  Two  nations  will  live  where  there  is  ice  to  store  and 
one  will  invent  and  the  other  fail  to  invent  the  ice  chest.  Whole 
series  of  peoples  possess  bamboo  and  clay,  and  yet  some  of  them 
draw  water  in  bamboo  joints  and  others  in  pots.  Obviously, 
natural  environment  does  impose  certain  limiting  conditions  on 
human  life;  but  equally  obviously,  it  does  not  cause  inventions 
or  institutions. 

The  native  Australians  have  wood  and  cord  and  flint  but  do 
not  make  bows  and  arrows.  Their  civilization  had  not  advanced 
to  the  point  where  they  were  able  to  devise  an  efficient  bow,  and 
the  requisite  idea  failed  to  be  carried  to  them  from  elsewhere 
as  it  was  to  other  peoples  who  also  did  not  invent  the  weapon. 
The  Polynesians,  on  the  other  hand,  seem  once  to  have  had  the 
weapon,  as  evidenced  by  their  retaining  it  as  a  toy,  but  to  have 
disused  it,  perhaps  because  they  specialized  on  fighting  with 
spears  and  clubs.  Modern  civilized  people  fight  at  long  range, 
but  have  let  bows  go  out  of  use,  except  for  sport,  because  their 
knowledge  of  metallurgy  and  chemistry  centuries  ago  progressed 
to  the  point  where  they  could  produce  firearms.  Development 
or  lack  of  development  or  specialization  of  other  cultural  activi¬ 
ties — social  causes — thus  determine  more  directly  than  other 
factors  whether  or  not  a  people  employ  the  bow  and  arrow.  Of 
those  mentioned,  the  Australians  are  the  only  ones  with  whom 
a  factor  of  natural  environment  might  be  alleged  to  enter: 
namely,  their  isolation,  which  cut  them  off  from  communications 
and  the  opportunity  to  learn  from  other  races.  Yet  such  isola¬ 
tion  is  as  much  a  matter  of  inability  to  traverse  space  as  it  is 
a  matter  of  physical  distance.  A  developed  art  of  navigation 
would  have  abolished  the  Australian  isolation.  Thus,  this  seem¬ 
ingly  environmental  cause  of  a  cultural  fact  depends  for  its 
effectiveness  on  a  co-existing  cultural  cause.  It  is  the  latter 
which  is  the  most  immediate  or  specific  cause. 

In  general,  then,  it  may  be  concluded  that  the  directly  deter¬ 
mining  factors  of  cultural  phenomena  are  not  nature  which  gives 
or  withholds  materials,  but  the  general  state  of  knowledge  and 
technology  and  advancement  of  the  group;  in  short,  historical 
or  cultural  influences. 


HEREDITY,  CLIMATE,  AND  CIVILIZATION  183 


84.  Diet 

The  greater  part  of  the  Southwest  is  arid.  Fish  are  scarce. 
The  result  is  that  most  of  the  tribes  get  little  opportunity  to 
fish.  Most  of  these  Southwestern  Indians  will  not  eat  fish;  in 
fact,  think  them  poisonous.  This  circumstance  might  lead  to 
the  following  inference :  nature  does  not  furnish  fish  in  abun¬ 
dance  ;  therefore  the  Indians  got  out  of  the  habit  of  eating  them, 
and  finally  came  to  believe  them  poisonous.  At  first  blush  this 
may  seem  a  sufficient  explanation.  But  it  is  well  to  note  that 
the  explanation  has  two  parts  and  that  only  one  of  them  has  \ 

k  \ 

to  do  with  nature :  the  habit  of  not  eating  fish  because  they  are 
too  scarce  to  make  it  worth  while.  As  soon  as  one  proceeds  to 
the  second  step,  that  the  disuse  led  to  aversion  and  then  to  a 
false  belief  of  poisonousness,  one  has  gone  on  to  a  different 
matter.  Disuse,  aversion,  and  belief  lie  wholly  within  the  field 
of  human  conduct.  To  derive  a  psychological  phenomenon, 
such  as  a  belief,  from  another  psychological  phenomenon  such 
as  a  particular  disuse,  because  this  disuse  is  founded  on  a  geo¬ 
graphical  factor,  would  of  course  be  a  logical  fallacy.  It  can 
also  be  shown  not  to  hold,  since  we  prize  caviar  and  oysters  and 
venison  in  proportion  to  their  rarity.  Scarcity  in  this  case  thus 
leads  to  the  contrary  psychological  attitude,  and  either  fails  to 
establish  beliefs  or  establishes  favorable  ones. 

Again,  either  through  a  change  in  climate  or  through  the  im¬ 
provement  of  trade,  a  food  that  was  scarce  may  become  plenti¬ 
ful.  Or  a  people  may  remove  to  a  new  habitat,  different  from 
that  in  which  their  customs  of  eating  were  formed.  If  environ¬ 
ment  alone  were  the  dominating  cause  of  their  customs,  these 
customs  should  then  immediately  alter.  As  a  fact,  a  group 
sometimes  adheres  to  its  old  customs.  The  immediate  cause  of 
such  conservatism  is  habit  or  inertia  or  inclination  toward  super¬ 
stition  or  fear  of  taboo,  all  of  which  are  mental  reactions  ex¬ 
pressed  in  folkways  or  social  customs.  Thus  environment  re¬ 
mains  at  most  a  partial  and  indirectly  operating  cause. 

A  case  in  point  is  that  of  the  Jews.  It  is  often  said  that  the 
Jew’s  prohibition  against  eating  pork  and  oysters  and  lobsters 
originated  in  hygienic  considerations ;  that  these  were  climatic¬ 
ally  unsafe  foods  for  him  in  Palestine.  This  explanation  is 


184 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


more  simple  than  true.  Ancient  Palestine  was  an  arid  country 
in  which  hogs  could  not  be  raised  with  economic  profit,  and  so 
they  were  not  raised ;  and  the  Philistine  and  Phoenician  kept  the 
Jew  from  the  coast  along  which  he  might  have  obtained  shell¬ 
fish.  Eating  neither  food,  he  happened  to  acquire  a  distrust 
of  them ;  having  the  distrust,  he  rationalized  it  by  saying  that 
it  was  foreign  and  wicked  and  irreligious  10  act  counter  to  his 
habits — just  like  the  Pueblo  Indian ;  and  in  the  end  had  the 
Lord  issue  the  prohibition  for  him.  Yet  this  outcome  is  a  long 
way  from  the  starting  point  of  natural  environment.  The 
environment  may  indeed  be  said  to  have  furnished  the  first 
occasion,  but  the  determining  causes  of  the  taboos  in  the  Mosaic 
law  are  of  an  entirely  different  kind — distrust,  custom,  ration¬ 
alization,  psychological  or  cultural  factors.  If  doubt  remains, 
it  is  dispelled  by  the  orthodox  Jew  of  to-day,  whose  environ¬ 
ment  thrusts  some  of  his  forbidden  foods  at  him  as  economically 
and  hygienically  satisfactory,  whereas  he  still  shudders  at  the 
thought  of  tasting  them. 

If  this  sort  of  cultural  crystallizing  of  custom  and  subsequent 
rationalizing  or  ritual  sanctioning  takes  place  among  civilized 
and  intelligent  people,  the  like  must  occur  among  uncivilized 
tribes. 


85.  Agriculture 

Attempts  have  been  made  to  derive  the  invention  of  agri¬ 
culture  from  climatic  factors.  The  first  theory  was  that  farm¬ 
ing  took  its  rise  in  the  tropics,  where  agriculture  came  natu¬ 
rally,  almost  without  effort,  under  a  bounteous  sky.  Only  after 
people  had  acquired  the  habit  of  farming  and  had  moved  into 
other  less  favorably  endowed  countries,  did  they  take  their  agri¬ 
culture  seriously  in  order  to  survive.  But  a  second,  equally 
plausible,  and  quite  contradictory  theory  has  been  advanced, 
which  looks  toward  the  duress  rather  than  the  easy  favors  of 
nature.  On  the  basis  of  conditions  among  the  modern  Papago 
Indians  and  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the  Southwest,  it  has 
been  argued  that  it  must  have  been  the  peoples  of  arid  countries 
who  invented  agriculture,  necessity  driving  them  to  it  through 
shortage  of  wild  supplies. 


HEREDITY,  CLIMATE,  AND  CIVILIZATION  185 

Between  such  flat  opposites,  the  choice  is  merely  one  of  un¬ 
scientific  guessing.  In  this  particular  case  of  the  Southwest  it 
is  certain  that  both  guesses  are  wrong.  Agriculture  did  not 
come  to  the  natives  of  this  area  because  nature  was  favorable 
or  because  it  was  unfavorable.  It  came  because  through  increase 
of  knowledge  and  change  of  attitude,  some  people  in  the  region 
of  Southern  Mexico  or  Guatemala  or  beyond  first  turned  agri¬ 
culturists,  and  from  them  the  art  was  gradually  carried,  through 
nation  after  nation,  to  the  Southwestern  tribes,  and  finally  even 
to  the  Indians  of  the  North  Atlantic  coast. 

The  reasons  for  acceptance  of  this  explanation  are  several. 
First  is  the  distribution  of  native  agriculture,  whose  practice 
was  about  equally  spread  in  the  two  American  continents  with 
its  middle  in  or  near  Central  America.  If  a  geographical  dif¬ 
fusion  of  the  art  from  a  center  took  place,  its  radiation  or 
extension  would  probably  be  about  equal  to  the  north  and  south. 
Then,  the  middle  portions  of  the  new  world  held  the  greatest 
concentration  of  native  population,  such  as  would  have  tended 
to  produce  a  pressure  in  the  direction  of  the  establishment  of 
agriculture  and  would  also  normally  be  a  consequence  of  the 
continued  custom  of  farming,  as  opposed  to  unsettled  life. 
Again,  the  Southwestern  tribes  planted  only  maize,  beans,  and 
squashes ;  the  Mexicans  grew  in  addition  tomatoes,  chili  peppers, 
cacao,  and  sweet  potatoes.  It  looks  as  if  they  had  carried  their 
agriculture  farther  through  having  been  at  it  longer.  Then, 
pottery  has  evidently  spread  out  from  the  same  center,  and  the 
two  arts  seem  to  go  hand  in  hand.  Other  evidence  might  be 
adduced,  such  as  archaeological  excavations  and  the  botanical 
fact  that  the  home  of  the  nearest  wild  relatives  of  the  plants 
cultivated  in  the  Southwest  is  the  central  or  middle  American 
area  (§  183). 

In  short,  the  Southwestern  Indians  did  not  farm  because  na¬ 
ture  induced  them  to  make  the  invention.  They  did  not  make 
the  invention  at  all.  A  far  away  people  made  it,  and  from  them 
it  was  transmitted  to  the  Southwest  through  a  series  of  suc¬ 
cessive  tribal  contacts.  These  contacts,  which  then  are  the 
specific  cause  of  Southwestern  agriculture,  constitute  a  human 
social  factor;  a  cultural  or  civilizational  factor.  Climatic  or 
physical  environment  did  not  enter  into  the  matter  at  all,  except 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


186 

to  render  agriculture  somewhat  difficult  in  the  arid  Southwest, 
though  not  difficult  enough  to  prevent  it.  Had  the  Southwest 
been  thoroughly  desert,  agriculture  could  not  have  got  a  foot¬ 
hold  there.  But  this  would  be  only  a  limiting  condition;  the 
active  or  positive  causes  that  brought  about  the  Southwestern 
agriculture  are  its  invention  farther  South,  the  spread  of  the 
invention  to  the  North,  and  its  acceptance  there. 

Of  course  this  conclusion  sheds  no  light  on  the  causes  of  the 
first  invention  in  the  middle  American  region.  The  ultimate 
origin  of  the  phenomenon  has  not  been  penetrated.  But  the 
prevalence  of  agriculture  in  the  aboriginal  Southwest  for  sev¬ 
eral  thousand  years  past  has  been  pretty  certainly  accounted 
for,  and  by  an  explanation  in  terms  of  culture  or  civilization, 
or  the  activity  of  societies  of  human  beings. 

86.  Cultural  Factors 

Such  cultural  causes  constitute  the  third  set  or  kind  of  fac¬ 
tors  by  which  civilization  is  explainable.  If  the  example  just 
discussed  is  representative,  it  is  clear  that  cultural  factors  ordi¬ 
narily  interpret  more  phenomena  of  civilization,  and  interpret 
them  more  fully,  than  factors  either  of  racial  heredity  or  phys¬ 
ical  environment. 

It  is  different  in  zoology  and  botany.'  The  forms  and  be¬ 
havior  of  animals  and  plants  are  explainable  in  terms  of  heredity 
and  environment  because  animals  and  plants  have  no  culture. 
It  is  true  that  the  forms  and  behavior  are  determined  also  by 
other  animals  and  plants,  their  characteristics,  habits,  and  abun¬ 
dance,  but  these  factors  are  in  a  larger  sense  part  of  the  environ¬ 
ment.  They  are  at  any  rate  sub-cultural.  But  since  anthro¬ 
pology  deals  with  beings  whose  distinctive  trait  in  social  rela¬ 
tions  is  the  possession  of  the  thing  that  we  call  culture,  the 
factors  which  biology  employs  are  insufficient.  It  is  not  that 
heredity  and  natural  environment  fail  to  apply  to  man,  but  that 
they  apply  only  indirectly  and  remotely  to  his  civilization. 
This  fundamental  fact  has  often  been  overlooked,  especially  in 
modern  times,  because  the  biological  sciences  having  achieved 
successful  increases  of  knowledge  and  understanding,  the  temp¬ 
tation  was  great  to  borrow  their  method  outright  and  apply  it 


HEREDITY,  CLIMATE,  AND  CIVILIZATION  187 

without  serious  modification  to  the  human  material  of  anthro¬ 
pology.  This  procedure  simplified  the  situation,  but  yielded 
inadequate  and  illusory  results.  For  a  very  long  time  the  idea 
that  man  possessed  and  animals  lacked  a  soul  influenced  people ’s 
thought  to  such  a  degree  that  they  scarcely  thought  of  human 
beings  in  terms  of  biological  causality,  of  heredity  and  environ¬ 
ment.  Then  when  a  reaction  began  to  set  in,  less  than  two  cen¬ 
turies  ago,  and  it  became  more  generally  recognized  that  man 
was  an  animal,  the  pendulum  swung  to  the  other  extreme  and 
the  tendency  grew  of  seeing  in  him  only  the  animal,  the  cul¬ 
tureless  being,  and  of  either  ignoring  his  culture  or  thinking 
that  it  could  be  explained  away  by  resolving  it  into  the  factors 
familiar  from  biology.  The  just  and  wise  course  lies  between. 
The  biological  aspects  of  man  must  be  interpreted  in  terms  of 
biological  causation,  his  cultural  aspects  in  terms  first  of  all  of 
cultural  causation.  After  they  have  been  thus  resolved,  the 
cultural  causes  may  reduce  to  ultimate  factors  of  heredity  and 
natural  environment. 

87.  Cultural  Distribution 

The  Southwest  also  provides  an  example  of  how  cultural  phe¬ 
nomena  can  be  seen  to  be  arranged  geographically  so  as  to  yield 
a  meaning  or  to  outline  their  history,  without  reference  to  cli¬ 
mate  or  natural  influences.  Near  the  center  of  the  area,  in 
northern  New  Mexico  and  Arizona,  live  four  groups  of  Pueblo 
or  town  building  Indians — the  ITopi,  Zuni,  Keres,  and  Tewa  or 
Tano — who  represent  a  sort  of  elite  of  the  native  culture.  They 
farm,  make  pottery,  accumulate  wealth  in  turquoise,  are  gov¬ 
erned  by  priests,  worship  under  a  remarkably  complex  set  of 
rituals,  which  involve  altars,  masks,  symbols  of  all  sorts,  and  a 
rude  sort  of  philosophy. 

As  one  goes  from  the  Pueblo  center  to  the  less  settled  tribes, 
one  encounters  first  the  Navaho,  who  are  earth  hut  builders  and 
farm  but  little,  yet  share  much  of  the  Pueblo  elaborateness  of 
ritual,  including  altars,  masks,  and  symbols.  A  little  farther 
out,  among  the  Apache  and  Pima,  the  cults  have  perceptibly 
diminished  in  intricacy  and  symbolic  value:  altars  and  masks 
are  lacking. 


188 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


The  simplification  increases  among  the  more  remote  Mohave, 
whose  cults  are  based  on  dreams  instead  of  priestly  tradition. 
Still  farther,  on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  among  the  Luiseno 
and  Gabrielino,  some  Pueblo  traits  can  still  be  found ;  cult  altars 
and  pottery,  for  instance.  But  agriculture,  homes  of  stone, 
turquoise,  priests,  and  the  majority  of  Pueblo  institutions  are 
unknown.  Finally,  still  farther  away  in  central  California,  the 
Yokuts  now  and  then  show  a  culture  trait  reminiscent  of  the 
Pueblos :  grooved  arrow  straighteners,  perhaps,  or  occasional 
rudely  made  pottery  vessels.  These  are  suggestive  bits;  frag¬ 
ments  that  have  been  whittled  away  or  toned  down.  Pueblo 
culture  as  a  whole  has  vanished  at  this  distance.  In  its  place 
the  Yokuts  possess  quite  different  arts  and  institutions  and 
beliefs. 

What  is  the  significance  of  this  gradual  fading  away  of  one 
type  of  civilization  and  its  replacement  by  others?  Evidently 
that  certain  influences  have  radiated  out  from  the  higher  Pueblo 
center,  and  that  the  effect  of  these  has  diminished  in  proportion 
to  the  number  of  tribes  they  have  passed  through.  The  Pueblos 
have  succeeded  in  handing  over  the  largest  share  of  their  civili¬ 
zation  to  the  adjacent  Navaho — and  no  doubt  also  received  most 
from  them.  The  Apache  being  more  remote,  were  less  affected; 
and  so  on  to  the  farthest  limits  of  the  influences. 

It  is  also  clear  that  a  time  element  is  involved.  A  people 
receiving  an  art  from  another  obviously  acquires  this  later  than 
the  inventors.  Most  traits  which  the  central  Pueblos  share  with 
peripheral  tribes  may  be  assumed  to  have  existed  longer  among 
the  Pueblos,  simply  because  they  possess  more  traits  in  their 
culture  and  the  flow  has  prevailingly  been  out  from  them.  Thus 
they  make  uncolored,  two-colored,  and  three-colored  pottery ; 
the  tribes  on  the  margin  of  the  Southwest,  uncolored  pottery 
only;  those  beyond  the  range  of  immediate  Southwestern  in¬ 
fluence,  no  pottery  at  all.  Unless  therefore  there  should  be 
special  reasons  suggestive  of  a  degenerative  loss  of  the  art 
among  the  marginal  tribes — and  no  such  reasons  are  known — 
the  conclusion  is  forced  that  Southwestern  pottery  was  first 
made  by  the  ancestors  of  the  Pueblos  or  their  predecessors  in 
the  central  part  of  the  area,  presumably  as  plain  ware,  and  that 
thence  knowledge  of  the  art  was  gradually  carried  outward. 


HEREDITY,  CLIMATE,  AND  CIVILIZATION  189 


However  while  simple  pottery  making  was  thus  being  taken  up 
by  the  tribes  nearest  to  the  Pueblo  district,  the  Pueblos  were 
going  ahead  and  learning  to  ornament  vessels  with  painted  de¬ 
signs.  In  time  this  added  art  also  spread  to  the  neighbors,  but 
meanwhile  these  had  passed  knowledge  of  the  first  stage  on  to 
the  tribes  still  farther  out  than  themselves ;  and  meanwhile  also 
the  Pueblos  had  perhaps  gone  on  to  a  third  stage,  that  of  com¬ 
bining  colors  in  their  decoration. 

In  this  way,  if  nothing  interrupted  the  even  regularity  of 
the  process,  the  focal  people,  with  their  lead  in  creating  or  in¬ 
venting  or  improving,  might  pass  through  half  a  dozen  succes¬ 
sive  stages  of  the  art,  or  of  many  arts,  while  the  outermost 
peoples  were  just  beginning  to  receive  the  rudiments.  The 
intermediate  tribes  would  show  attainment  of  a  less  or  greater 
number  of  stages  in  proportion  to  their  distance  from  the  center. 
In  this  event  the  main  facts  concerning  the  pottery  art  of  the 
Southwest  could  be  represented  by  a  diagram  of  a  step  pyramid, 
each  level  or  step  picturing  a  new  increment  to  the  basic  art. 
The  Pueblos  would  be  at  the  peak  of  the  pyramid,  five  or  six 
steps  high,  the  near-by  tribes  a  step  or  two  lower;  and  so  on 
to  the  outermost,  who  remain  at,  or  have  only  recently  attained 
to,  the  first  or  lowest  level;  while  beyond  these  would  be  the 
non-pottery-making  tribes  wholly  outside  the  Pueblo  sphere  of 
influence. 

Of  course  on  the  actual  map  the  distribution  of  the  various 
forms  or  stages  of  pottery  made  does  not  work  out  with  the 
perfect  regularity  of  our  schematic  diagram.  Here  and  there  a 
tribe  has  migrated  from  its  habitat  and  disturbed  the  symmetry 
of  arrangement ;  or  the  population  of  a  district  has  been  so  thin 
that  it  could  live  on  wild  products  without  resorting  to  agricul¬ 
ture,  so  that  it  remained  more  or  less  nomadic  and  had  no  use 
for  fragile  pottery;  or  a  third  group  of  tribes,  developed  basket 
making  to  a  pitch  which  yielded  excellent  vessels,  with  the  result 
that  they  were  satisfied  and  failed  to  take  up  pottery,  or  took 
it  up  half-heartedly,  so  that  the  art  remained  stunted  among 
them — a  stage  or  two  more  backward  than  their  position  would 
lead  one  to  expect.  But  on  the  whole  pottery  distribution  in 
the  Southwest  does  follow  the  schematic  arrangement  with  suf¬ 
ficient  closeness  to  warrant  the  assumption  that  the  history  of 


190  ANTHROPOLOGY 

its  development  has  been,  at  least  in  outline,  as  just  recon¬ 
structed. 

The  facts  conform  still  more  closely  to  the  step  pyramid  ar¬ 
rangement  when  consideration  is  given  not  to  pottery  alone  but 
to  the  whole  culture — agriculture,  other  arts,  social  forms,  ritual, 
religious  organization,  and  the  like.  In  that  case  Pueblo  culture 
is  seen  to  comprise  easily  the  greatest  number  of  traits  or  com¬ 
ponent  parts,  and  these  to  grow  fewer  and  fewer  towards  the 
edges  of  the  Southwest.1 

88.  Historical  Induction 

The  sort  of  conclusion  here  outlined  is  really  a  historical  in¬ 
duction  drawn  from  the  facts  of  culture  distribution  among 
living  but  historyless  tribes.  Where  documents  are  available, 
the  development,  the  growth  of  the  pyramid  itself,  as  it  were, 
can  often  be  seen  as  it  happened.  Thus,  about  the  year  100 
A.D.,  Rome,  Italy,  France,  England,  Scotland,  stood  on  succes¬ 
sive  descending  culture  levels  related  to  one  another  much  like 
Pueblo,  Navaho,  Pima,  Mohave,  Gabrielino ;  and  also  in  the  same 
placement  of  ever  more  outward  geographic  situation. 

Where  written  records  fail,  archaeological  remains  sometimes 
take  their  place.  This  is  true  of  the  Southwest,  whose  ancient 
pottery,  stone  edifices  and  implements,  and  evidences  of  agricul¬ 
ture  remain  as  records  of  the  past,  telling  a  story  only  a  little 
less  complete  and  direct  than  that  of  the  Roman  historians.  One 
of  the  archgeologists  of  the  Southwest  has  drawn  up  a  pair  of 
diagrams  to  outline  the  culture  history  of  the  area  as  he  has 
reconstructed  it  from  comparison  of  the  prehistoric  remains 
(Fig.  26). 

In  all  this  story,  what  has  become  of  natural  environment  and 
heredity?  They  have  dropped  from  sight.  We  have  been  able 
to  build  up  a  reasonable  and  probably  reliable  reconstruction 

i  Of  course  this  does  not  mean  that  the  tribes  beyond  the  edge  are 
without  culture.  They  would  normally  be  under  influences  from  other 
centers.  And  in  a  certain  degree  every  people  possesses  initiative  and  is 
constantly  tending  to  invent  or  produce  culture,  though  perhaps  only  of  a 
simple  order.  It  is  only  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  Southwest  and  its 
Pueblo  focus  that  the  extra-marginal  tribes  possess  a  zero  culture. — For 
examples  of  other  cultural  step  pyramids,  see  §  164,  175,  Fig.  35, 


(o>. 


(  Hist  ^ 
I  Walapai  I 
V  »fc>/ 


!  Anciem  Marginal  Zone 
J  or  Rancheria  Center 

\  /historic 

\  !  Rancheria 

\  l  <Mer- 

\  Pima 

\  Ik/  \  e 


\ 


A 

(  Hist  \ 
VTarahumarey 
V etc  y 


/ 


^HisJoricRanchenaCulture^ 


f 


♦  rv  •  •«*•••  «•  ««•  • 


HisJonc 


Pusblo  Culture 


LaT8  Prehistoric  Pueblo  Culture 


Ancient  Pure  Pusblo  Culture 


Primitive  Pueblo  or  Rancheria  Culture 


Nomadic  Culture  - ^Basket  Maker”  etc. 


•  •  •  • • •  ••«•••«• 


•  ••  •••  ••  •••••»«< 


Fig.  26.  Diagrammatic  representation  by  Nelson  of  the  geography 
and  history  of  the  culture  of  the  Indians  of  the  southwestern  United 
States :  above,  in  space ;  below,  in  time,  on  A-B  diameter  of  circle. 


192 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


of  the  course  of  development  of  civilization  in  an  area  without 
reference  to  these  two  sets  of  factors.  The  reconstruction  is  in 
terms  of  culture.  Evidently  environment  and  heredity  are  in 
the  main  superfluous.  They  need  not  be  brought  in;  are  likely 
to  be  confusing,  to  diminish  the  internal  consistency  of  the 
findings  attained,  if  they  are  brought  in.  This  is  true  in  gen¬ 
eral,  not  only  of  the  instance  chosen.  By  using  environment 
or  heredity,  one  can  often  seem  to  explain  certain  selected  fea¬ 
tures  of  a  culture,  but  the  appearance  is  illusory,  because  one 
need  only  be  impartial  to  realize  that  one  can  never  explain  in 

this  way  the  whole  of  any  culture.  When,  however,  the  ex- 
« 

planation  can  be  made  in  terms  of  culture — always  of  course  on 
the  basis  of  a  sufficient  knowledge  and  digestion  of  facts — it 
applies  increasingly  to  the  whole  of  a  civilization,  and  each  por¬ 
tion  explained  helps  to  explain  better  all  other  portions.  The 
cultural  interpretation  of  culture  is  therefore  progressive,  and 
ever  more  productive,  whereas  the  environmental  and  the 
biological-hereditary  interpretation  fail  in  proportion  as  they 
are  pushed  farther;  in  fact  can  be  kept  going  only  by  ignoring 
larger  and  larger  masses  of  fact  to  which  they  do  not  apply. 

Historians,  who  may  be  described  as  anthropologists  whose 
work  is  made  easy  for  them  by  the  possession  of  written  and 
dated  records,  have  tacitly  recognized  this  situation.  They  may 
now  and  then  attribute  some  event  or  condition  of  civilization 
to  an  inherent  quality  of  a  race,  or  to  an  influence  of  climate 
or  soil  or  sea.  But  this  is  mostly  in  their  introductory  chapters. 
When  they  really  get  to  grips  with  their  subject,  they  explain 
in  terms  of  human  thought  and  action,  in  other  words,  of  cul¬ 
ture.  It  is  true  that  they  dwell  more  on  personalities  than 
anthropologists  do.  But  that  is  because  the  materials  left  them 
by  former  historians  are  full  of  personalities  and  anecdotes. 
And  on  the  other  hand,  anthropological  data  are  usually  unduly 
deficient  in  the  personal  element ;  they  consist  of  descriptions 
of  customs,  tools  used  by  long  forgotten  individuals,  and  the 
like.  If  anthropologists  were  able  to  recover  knowledge  of  the 
particular  Pueblo  woman  who  first  painted  a  third  color  or  a 
glaze  on  a  bowl,  or  of  the  priest  who  first  instituted  a  masked 
dance  in  order  to  make  rain,  we  may  be  confident  that  they 


HEREDITY,  CLIMATE,  AND  CIVILIZATION  193 

would  discuss  these  individuals.  And  such  knowledge  would 
throw  more  light  on  the  history  of  Southwestern  pottery  and 
religion  and  culture  generally  than  any  amount  of  emphasis  on 
the  number  of  inches  of  rainfall  per  year,  or  the  pulse  rate  or 
similar  hypothetical  and  remote  causes. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


DIFFUSION 

89.  The  couvade. — 90.  Proverbs. — 91.  Geographic  distribution. — 92.  The 
magic  flight. — 93.  Flood  legends. — 94.  The  double-headed  eagle. — 95.  The 
Zodiac. — 96.  Measures. — 97.  Divination. — 98.  Tobacco. — 99.’  Migrations. 

89.  The  Couvade 

The  couvade  is  a  custom  to  which  the  peasants  of  the  Pyrenees 
adhered  until  a  century  or  two  ago.  When  a  couple  had  a  child, 
the  wife  got  up  and  went  about  her  daily  work  as  well  as  she 
might,  while  the  husband  went  to  bed  to  lie-in  in  state  and  re¬ 
ceive  the  visits  of  the  neighbors.  This  was  thought  to  be  for  the 
good  of  the  baby. 

The  same  custom  is  found  among  the  Indians  of  Brazil.  They 
believe  that  a  violation  of  the  custom  would  bring  sickness  or 
ill  luck  upon  the  child.  They  look  upon  the  child  as  something 
new  and  delicate,  a  being  requiring  not  only  physical  nurture 
but  the  superadded  protection  of  this  religious  or  magical 
practice. 

The  Basques  of  the  Pyrenees  and  the  Indians  of  Brazil  are 
of  different  race,  separate  origins,  and  without  any  known  his¬ 
torical  contacts.  The  substantial  identity  of  the  custom  among 
them  therefore  long  ago  led  to  its  being  explained  as  the  result 
of  the  cropping  out  of  an  instinctive  impulse  of  the  human 
mind.  Tylor,  for  instance,  held  that  whenever  a  branch  of  hu¬ 
manity  reached  a  certain  hypothetical  stage  of  development, 
namely,  that  phase  in  which  the  reckoning  of  descent  from  the 
mother  began  to  transform  into  reckoning  of  descent  from  the 
father,  the  couvade  tended  to  appear  spontaneously  as  a  natural 
accompaniment.  The  Basque  peasants,  of  course,  are  a  more 
advanced  people  than  the  cannibalistic  Brazilian  natives.  But 

194 


DIFFUSION 


195 


they  are  an  old  and  a  conservative  people  who  have  long  lived 
in  comparative  isolation  in  their  mountainous  district ;  and  thus, 
it  might  be  argued,  they  retained  the  custom  of  the  couvade  as 
a  survival  from  the  earlier  transitional  condition. 

According  to  this  method  of  explanation,  the  occurrence  of 
almost  any  custom,  art,  or  belief  among  widely  separated  and 
unrelated  peoples  is  likely  to  be  the  result  of  the  similar  work¬ 
ing  of  the  human  mind  under  similar  conditions.  The  cause 
of  cultural  identities  and  resemblances,  especially  among  primi¬ 
tive  or  “nature”  peoples,  is  not  to  be  sought  primarily  in  his¬ 
torical  factors,  such  as  common  origin,  migrations,  the  propa¬ 
ganda  of  religion,  or  the  gradual  diffusion  of  an  idea,  but  is  to 
be  looked  for  in  something  inherent  in  humanity  itself,  in  inborn 
psychological  tendencies.  This  explanation  is  that  of  “Inde¬ 
pendent  Evolution.”  It  is  also  known  as  the  doctrine  of  “Ele¬ 
mentary  Ideas.” 

Contrasting  with  this  principle  is  that  of  borrowing — one 
people  learning  an  institution  or  belief  from  another,  or  taking 
over  a  custom  or  invention.  That  borrowing  has  been  consid¬ 
erably  instrumental  in  shaping  the  cultures  of  the  more  advanced 
nations,  is  an  obvious  fact.  People  are  Christians  not  through 
the  spontaneous  unfolding  of  the  whole  dogma  and  ritual  of 
Christianity  in  each  of  them,  nor  even  within  their  nation,  but 
because  of  the  historically  documented  spread  of  Christianity 
which  is  still  going  on.  As  a  heathen  people  is  converted  by 
missionaries  to-day,  so  our  North  European  ancestors  were  con¬ 
verted  by  Romans,  and  the  Romans  by  the  Apostles  and  their 
followers.  When  historical  records  are  available,  cultural  bor¬ 
rowing  of  this  sort  is  generally  easy  to  establish. 

Borrowing  can  sometimes  be  shown  as  very  likely  even  where 
direct  evidence  is  lacking.  If  two  peoples  that  possess  an  insti¬ 
tution  in  common  are  known  off-shoots  one  from  the  other,  or 
if  they  have  had  numerous  trade  relations,  it  is  hardly  neces¬ 
sary  to  demonstrate  the  specific  time  and  manner  of  transmis¬ 
sion  between  them.  Supposing  that  a  religion,  an  alphabet,  and 
perhaps  a  number  of  arts  have  passed  from  one  nation  to 
another,  one  would  normally  ask  for  little  further  evidence  that 
a  custom,  such  as  the  couvade,  which  they  shared,  had  also  been 
originated  by  one  and  borrowed  by  the  other. 


19G 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


90.  Proverbs 

Even  where  contacts  are  more  remote,  the  geographical  setting 
of  two  peoples  often  makes  borrowing  seem  likely.  The  custom 
of  uttering  proverbs,  for  instance,  has  a  significant  distribution. 
It  seems  astonishing  that  barbarous  West  African  tribes  should 
possess  a  stock  of  proverbs  as  abundant  and  pithy  as  those  cur¬ 
rent  in  Europe.  Not  that  the  proverbs  are  identical.  The  negro 
lacks  too  many  articles,  and  too  many  of  our  manners,  to  allude 
as  we  do.  But  he  does  share  with  us  the  habit  of  expressing 
himself  on  certain  situations  with  brief  current  sayings  of 
homely  and  instantly  intelligible  nature,  that  put  a  generality 
into  specific  and  concrete  form.  Thus:  “One  tree  does  not  make 
a  forest”;  “Run  from  the  sword  and  hide  in  the  scabbard”; 
‘  ‘  If  the  stomach  is  weak,  do  not  eat  cockroaches  ” ;  “  Distant  fire¬ 
wood  is  good  firewood.” 

The  proverb  tendency  is  a  sufficiently  general  one  to  suggest 
its  independent  origin  in  Africa  and  Europe.  One’s  first  re¬ 
action  to  the  parallel  is  likely  to  be  something  like  this:  The 
negro  and  we  have  formulated  proverbs  because  we  are  both 
human  beings ;  the  coining  of  proverbs  is  instinctive  in  hu¬ 
manity.  So  it  might  be  maintained.  However,  as  soon  as  the 
distribution  of  proverbs  the  world  over  is  reviewed,  it  becomes 
evident  that  their  coining  cannot  be  spontaneous,  since  the  na¬ 
tive  American  race  appears  never  to  have  devised  a  single  true 
proverb.  On  the  other  side  are  the  Europeans,  Africans, 
Asiatics,  and  Oceanians  who  are  addicted  to  the  custom.  Degree 
of  civilization  evidently  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  matter,  be¬ 
cause  in  the  Old  World  primitive  and  advanced  peoples  alike 
use  proverbs;  whereas  in  the  New  World  wild  hunting  tribes 
as  well  as  the  most  progressive  nations  like  the  Mayas  have  no 
proverbs.  The  only  inference  which  the  facts  allow  is  that  there 
must  have  been  a  time  when  proverbs  were  unknown  anywhere 
— still  “uninvented”  by  mankind.  Then,  somewhere  in  the 
Old  World,  they  came  into  use.  Perhaps  it  was  a  genius  that 
struck  off  the  first  sayings  to  be  repeated  by  his  associates  and 
then  by  his  more  remote  environment.  At  any  rate,  the  custom 
spread  from  people  to  people  until  it  extended  over  almost  all 
the  eastern  hemisphere.  Some  cause,  however,  such  as  geo- 


DIFFUSION 


197 


graphical  isolation,  prevented  the  extension  of  the  movement  to 
the  western  hemisphere.  The  American  Indians  therefore  re¬ 
mained  proverbless  because  the  invention  was  never  transmitted 
to  them.  Here,  accordingly,  is  a  case  of  the  very  incomplete¬ 
ness  of  a  distribution  going  far  to  illuminate  the  history  of  a 
culture  trait.  The  lack  of  parallelism  between  the  hemispheres 
disproves  the  explanation  by  instinctive  independent  origin. 
This  negative  conclusion  in  turn  tends  strongly  to  establish  the 
probability  that  the  custom  was  borrowed,  perhaps  from  a  single 
source,  in  the  four  eastern  continents. 

91.  Geographic  Distribution 

Thus  it  appears  that  it  is  not  always  easy  to  settle  the  origin 
and  history  of  the  phenomena  of  culture.  Evidently,  many 
facts  must  be  taken  into  consideration:  above  all,  geographic 
distribution.  Because  a  habit  is  so  well  ingrained  in  our  life 
as  to  seem  absolutely  natural  and  almost  congenital,  it  does  not 
follow  that  it  really  is  so.  The  vast  majority  of  culture  elements 
have  been  learned  by  each  nation  from  other  peoples,  past  and 
present.  At  the  same  time  there  are  unexpected  limits  to  the 
principle  of  borrowing.  Transmission  often  operates  over  vast 
areas  and  for  long  periods  but  at  other  times  ceases. 

Two  reflections  arise.  The  first  is  the  discouraging  but  salu¬ 
tary  one  that  the  history  of  civilization  and  its  parts  is  an  in¬ 
tricate  matter,  not  to  be  validly  determined  by  off-hand  guesses. 
A  second  conclusion  is  that  the  geographic  distribution  of  any 
culture  element  is  always  likely  to  be  a  fact  of  prime  importance 
about  it.  It  is  because  the  Basques  and  the  Brazilian  Indians 
are  geographically  separate  that  there  is  fair  prima  facie  proba¬ 
bility  of  the  couvade  being  the  result  of  independent  origin.  It 
is  because  of  another  geographic  fact,  that  proverbs  are  known 
throughout  one  hemisphere  and  lacking  from  the  other,  that  it 
must  be  inferred  that  they  represent  a  borrowed  culture  trait. 

In  the  following  pages  a  number  of  culture  elements  will  be 
examined  from  the  point  of  view  of  their  distribution  with  the 
aim  of  determining  how  far  each  of  the  two  principles  of  parallel 
invention  and  of  borrowing  may  be  inferred  to  have  been  opera¬ 
tive  in  regard  to  them.  In  place  of  “independent  origin’ ’  the 


198 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


terms  ‘ ‘ parallelism ”  or  “ convergence’ ’  will  be  generally  used. 
As  an  equivalent  of  “borrowing”  the  somewhat  less  meta¬ 
phorical  word  “diffusion”  will  be  applied.  Well  known  his¬ 
toric  cases  of  diffusion,  such  as  those  of  Christianity  and  Mo¬ 
hammedanism,  of  Roman  law,  of  the  printing  press  and  steam 
engine  and  of  the  great  modern  mechanical  inventions,  will  not 
be  considered.  It  is  however  well  to  keep  these  numerous  cases 
in  the  background  of  one’s  mind  as  a  constant  suggestion  that 
the  principle  of  diffusion  is  an  extremely  powerful  one  and  still 
active.  In  fact,  the  chief  reason  why  early  anthropologists  did 
not  make  more  use  of  this  principle  seems  to  have  been  their 
extreme  familiarity  with  it.  It  was  going  on  all  about  them, 
so  that  in  dealing  with  prehistoric  times  or  with  remote  peoples, 
they  tended  to  overlook  it.  This  was  perhaps  a  natural  error, 
since  the  communications  of  savages  and  their  methods  of  trans¬ 
mission  are  so  much  more  restricted  than  our  own.  Yet  of 
course  even  savages  shift  their  habitations  and  acquire  new 
neighbors.  At  times  they  capture  women  and  children  from 
one  another.  Again  they  intermarry ;  and  they  almost  invariably 
maintain  some  sort  of  trade  relations  with  at  least  some  of  the 
adjacent  peoples.  Slow  as  diffusion  might  therefore  be  among 
them,  it  would  nevertheless  go  on,  and  its  lack  of  rapidity 
would  be  compensated  by  the  immense  durations  of  time  in  the 
prehistoric  period.  It  is  certain  that  the  simpler  inventions  of 
primitive  man  generally  did  not  travel  with  the  rapidity  of  the 
printing  press  and  telegraph  and  camera.  But  on  the  other 
hand,  instead  of  a  generation  or  a  century,  there  would  often 
be  periods  of  a  thousand  or  five  thousand  years  for  an  invention 
or  a  custom  to  spread  from  one  continent  to  another.  There  is 
thus  every  a  priori  reason  why  diffusion  could  be  expected  to 
have  had  a  very  large  part  in  the  formation  of  primitive  and 
barbarous  as  well  as  advanced  culture. 

92.  The  Magic  Flight 

There  is  one  folk-lore  plot  with  a  distribution  that  leaves  little 
doubt  as  to  its  diffusion  from  a  single  source.  This  is  the  inci¬ 
dent  known  as  the  Magic  Flight  or  Obstacle  Pursuit.  It  re¬ 
counts  how  the  hero,  when  pursued,  throws  behind  him  succes- 


DIFFUSION 


199 


sively  a  whetstone,  a  comb,  and  a  vessel  of  oil  or  other  liquid. 
The  stone  turns  into  a  mountain  or  precipice ;  the  comb  into  a 
forest  or  thicket ;  the  liquid  into  a  lake  or  river.  Each  of  these 
obstacles  impedes  the  pursuer  and  contributes  to  the  hero’s  final 
escape.  This  incident  has  been  found  in  stories  told  by  the  in¬ 
habitants  of  every  continent  except  South  America.  Its  dis¬ 
tribution  and  probable  spread  are  shown  in  Fig.  27. 

While  no  two  of  the  tales  or  myths  containing  the  episode 
of  the  Magic  Flight  are  identical,  there  can  be  no  serious  doubt 
as  to  a  common  source  of  the  incident  because  of  the  co-existence 
of  the  three  separate  items  that  make  it  up.  If  a  people  in 
Asia  and  one  in  America  each  knew  a  story  of  a  person  who  to 
impede  a  pursuer  spilt  water  on  the  ground  which  magically 
grew  into  a  vast  lake,  it  would  be  dogmatic  to  insist  on  this  as 
proof  of  a  historical  connection  between  the  two  far  separated 
stories.  Belief  in  the  virtue  of  magic  is  world-wide,  and  it  is 
entirely  conceivable  that  from  this  common  soil  of  magical  be¬ 
liefs  the  same  episode  might  repeatedly  have  sprouted  quite 
independently.  The  same  reasoning  would  apply  to  the  inci¬ 
dent  of  the  transformation  of  the  stone  and  of  the  comb,  as  long 
as  they  occurred  separately.  The  linking  of  the  three  items, 
however,  enormously  decreases  the  possibility  of  any  two  peoples 
having  hit  upon  them  separately.  It  would  be  stretching  coin¬ 
cidence  pretty  far  to  believe  that  each  people  independently 
invented  the  triple  complex.  It  is  also  significant  that  the 
number  of  impeding  obstacles  is  almost  always  three.  In  the 
region  of  western  Asia  and  Europe  where  the  tale  presumably 
originated,  three  is  the  number  most  frequently  employed  in 
magic,  ritual,  and  folk-lore.  Among  the  American  Indians, 
however,  three  is  scarcely  ever  thus  used,  either  four  or  five 
replacing  it  according  to  the  custom  pattern  of  the  particular 
tribe.  Nevertheless,  several  American  tribes  depart  from  their 
usual  pattern  and  mention  only  three  obstacles  in  telling  this 
story. 

This  instance  introduces  a  consideration  that  is  of  growing 
importance  in  culture  history  determinations.  If  a  trait  is  com¬ 
posed  of  several  elements  which  stand  in  no  necessary  relation 
to  each  other,  and  these  several  elements  recur  among  distinct 
or  remote  peoples  in  the  same  combination,  whereas  on  the  basis 


200 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


of  mere  accident  it  could  be  expected  that  the  several  elements 
would  at  times  combine  and  at  other  times  crop  out  separately, 
one  can  be  reasonably  sure  of  the  real  identity  and  common 
origin  of  the  complex  trait.  When  a  trait  is  simple,  it  is  more 
difficult  to  be  positive  that  the  apparent  resemblance  amounts 
to  identity.  Such  doubt  applies  for  instance  to  isolated  magical 
practices.  A  custom  found  among  separate  nations,  such  as 
sprinkling  water  to  produce  rain,  may  be  the  result  of  an  im¬ 
portation  of  the  idea  from  one  people  to  another.  Or  again  it 
may  represent  nothing  more  than  a  specific  application  of  the 
assumed  principle  that  an  act  similar  to  a  desired  effect  will 
produce  that  effect.  This  magical  belief  is  so  broad,  and  so 
ramifying  in  its  exemplifications,  as  to  become  almost  impossible 
to  use  as  a  criterion.  The  essential  basis  of  magic  may  con¬ 
ceivably  have  been  developed  at  a  single  culture  center  in  the 
far  distant  past  and  have  been  disseminated  thence  over  the 
whole  world.  Or  again,  for  all  that  it  is  possible  to  prove,  magic 
beliefs  may  really  be  rooted  instinctively  in  the  human  mind 
and  grow  thence  over  and  over  again  with  inevitability.  There 
seems  no  present  way  of  determining  which  interpretation  is 
correct. 


93.  Flood  Legends 

This  situation  applies  to  many  widely  spread  concepts  in 
folk-lore.  Flood  myths  of  some  sort,  for  instance,  are  told  by 
probably  the  majority  of  human  nations.  In  the  early  days  of 
the  science,  this  wide  distribution  of  flood  myths  was  held  to 
prove  the  actuality  of  a  flood,  or  to  be  evidence  of  the  descent 
of  all  mankind  from  a  single  nation  which  had  once  really 
experienced  it.  Such  explanations  are  too  obviously  naive  to 
require  refutation  to-day.  Yet  it  is  difficult  to  interpret  the 
wide  prevalence  of  flood  myths,  either  as  spontaneous  growth 
from  out  the  human  mind,  or  as  diffusion  from  a  single  devising 
of  the  idea.  Much  of  the  difficulty  is  caused  by  the  fact  that 
one  cannot  be  sure  that  the  various  flood  myths  are  identical. 
Some  peoples  have  the  flood  come  after  the  earth  is  formed  and 
inhabited,  and  have  it  almost  destroy  the  human  race.  Other 
nations  begin  their  cosmology  with  a  flood.  For  them,  water 


DIFFUSION 


201 


was  in  existence  before  there  was  an  earth,  and  the  problem  for 
the  gods  or  creative  animals  was  to  make  the  world.  This, 
according  to  some  American  Indian  versions,  they  finally  accom¬ 
plished  by  having  one  of  their  number  dive  to  the  bottom  and 
bring  up  a  few  grains  of  sand  which  were  then  expanded  to 
constitute  terra  firma.  The  first  type  of  story  is  evidently  a 
true  “flood”  myth;  the  second  might  better  be  described  as  a 
concept  of  ‘  ‘  primeval  water.  ’  ’  The  difficulty  is  enhanced  by  the 
fact  that  the  two  types  are  sometimes  found  amalgamated  in 
a  single  mythology.  Thus  the  Hebrew  account  begins  with  the 


Fig.  27.  The  Magic  Flight  tale,  an  example  of  inter-continental  and 
inter-hemispheric  diffusion.  After  Stucken,  with  additions. 


primeval  waters  but  subsequent  to  the  formation  of  the  earth 
the  deluge  covers  it.  So,  according  to  some  American  tribes,  the 
flood  came  after  the  earth,  but  the  waters  remained  until  after 
the  diving.  It  is  clear  that  flood  stories  are  more  shifting  than 
the  Magic  Flight  episode.  They  may  conceivably  all  be  varia¬ 
tions  of  a  single  theme  which  has  gradually  come  to  differen¬ 
tiate  greatly.  But  again,  several  distinct  concepts — primeval 
water,  flood,  the  diving  animals,  the  ark — may  have  been  evolved 
in  different  parts  of  the  world,  each  developing  in  its  own  way, 
and  traveling  so  far,  in  some  cases,  as  to  meet  and  blend  with 
others.  This  last  interpretation  is  favored  by  some  of  the  facts 
of  distribution :  the  prevalence  of  the  diving  concept  in  America, 


202  ANTHROPOLOGY 

for  instance,  and  the  absence  of  flood  myths  from  much  of 
Africa. 

There  is  a  vast  amount  of  folk-lore  recorded,  and  much  of 
it  has  lent  itself  admirably  to  the  working  out  of  its  historical 
origins,  so  far  as  limited  regions  are  concerned.  Folk-lorists 
are  often  able  to  prove  that  one  tale  originated  in  India  and 
was  carried  into  mediaeval  Europe,  or  that  another  was  probably 
first  devised  on  the  coast  of  British  Columbia  and  then  dissemi¬ 
nated  across  the  Rocky  mountains  to  the  interior  tribes  of  In¬ 
dians.  When  it  comes  to  intercontinental  and  world-wide  dis¬ 
tribution,  however,  difficulties  of  the  sort  just  set  forth  in  regard 
to  flood  myths  become  stronger  and  stronger.  While  the  most 
interesting  mythical  ideas  are  those  which  are  world-wide,  it  is 
in  these  that  uncertainty  between  origin  by  diffusion  or  paral¬ 
lelism  is  greatest.  The  Magic  Flight  therefore  constitutes  a 
grateful  exception.  It  opens  the  door  to  a  hope  that  more 
assiduous  analysis  and  comparison  may  lead  to  the  accurate 
determination  of  the  source  and  history  of  other  common  and 
fundamental  myths. 

94.  The  Double-headed  Eagle 

An  unexpected  story  of  wandering  attaches  to  the  figure  or 
symbol  of  the  double-headed  eagle.  Like  many  other  elements 
of  civilization,  this  goes  back  to  an  Egyptian  beginning.  One 
of  the  great  gods  of  Egypt  was  the  sun.  The  hawk  and  vulture 
were  also  divine  animals.  A  combination  was  made  showing  the 
disk  of  the  sun  with  a  long  narrow  wing  on  each  side.  Or  the 
bird  itself  was  depicted  with  outstretched  wings  but  its  body 
consisting  of  the  sun  disk.  These  were  striking  figures  of  con¬ 
siderable  aesthetic  and  imaginative  appeal.  From  Egypt  the 
design  was  carried  in  the  second  millenium  B.C.  to  the  Assyrians 
of  Mesopotamia  and  to  the  Hittites  of  Asia  Minor.  A  second 
head  was  added,  perhaps  to  complete  the  symmetry  of  the  figure. 
Just  as  a  wing  and  a  foot  went  out  from  each  side  of  the  body 
or  disk,  so  now  there  was  a  head  facing  each  way.  This  double¬ 
headed  bird  symbol  was  carved  on  cliffs  in  Asia  Minor.  Here 
the  pictures  remained,  no  doubt  wondered  at  but  uncopied,  for 
two  thousand  years.  In  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries 


DIFFUSION 


203 


after  Christ,  the  Turkish  princes,  feeling  the  symbol  to  be  a  fit 
emblem  of  sovereignty,  began  stamping  it  on  their  coins.  The 
later  Crusaders  brought  these  coins,  or  the  idea  of  the  pattern, 
back  with  them  to  Europe,  where  the  mediaeval  art  of  heraldry 
was  flourishing.  The  double-headed  eagle  was  a  welcome  addi¬ 
tion  to  the  lions  and  griffins  with  which  artists  were  emblazoning 
the  coats  of  arms  of  the  feudal  nobility.  The  meaning  of  sov¬ 
ereignty  remaining  attached  to  the  figure,  the  device  before  long 
became  indicative  of  the  imperial  idea.  This  is  the  origin  of  its 
use  as  a  symbol  in  the  late  empires  of  Austro-Hungary  and 
Russia. 

Four  hundred  years  ago  Charles  V  was  king  of  Spain  and 
Austria  and  Holy  Roman  emperor  of  Germany.  It  was  in  his 
reign  that  Cortez  and  Pizarro  conquered  Mexico  and  Peru. 
Thus  the  symbol  of  the  double-headed  eagle  was  carried  into 
the  New  World  and  the  Indians  became  conversant  with  it. 
Even  some  of  the  wilder  tribes  learned  the  figure,  although  they 
were  perhaps  more  impressed  with  it  as  a  decorative  motive  than 
as  an  emblem.  At  any  rate,  they  introduced  it  into  their  tex¬ 
tiles  and  embroideries.  The  Huichol  in  the  remote  mountains 
of  Mexico,  who  use  the  design  thus,  seem  to  believe  that  their 
ancestors  had  always  been  conversant  with  the  figure.  But  such 
a  belief  of  course  proves  no  more  than  did  the  ignorance  of 
European  heraldists  of  the  fact  that  their  double-headed  eagle 
came  to  them  from  Asia  Minor  and  ultimately  from  Egypt.  No 
pre-Columbian  representation  of  the  two-headed  eagle  is  known 
from  Mexico.  The  conclusion  can  therefore  hardly  be  escaped 
that  this  apparently  indigenous  textile  pattern  of  the  modern 
Huichol  is  also  to  be  derived  from  its  far  source  in  ancient  Egypt 
of  whose  existence  they  have  never  heard. 

95.  The  Zodiac 

The  foregoing  example  should  not  establish  the  impression 
that  the  main  source  of  all  culture  is  to  be  sought  in  Egypt. 
Many  other  ancient  and  modern  countries  have  made  their  con¬ 
tribution.  It  is  to  the  Chinese,  for  instance,  that  we  owe  silk, 
porcelain,  and  gun  powder.  The  ancient  Sumerians  and  Baby¬ 
lonians,  on  the  lower  course  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates,  moved 


204 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


toward  definite  cultural  progress  about  as  early  as  the  Egyp¬ 
tians,  and  have  perhaps  contributed  as  many  elements  to  the 
civilization  of  to-day. 

One  of  these  is  the  zodiac.  This  is  the  concept  of  dividing 
the  path  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  planets  around  the  heavens  into 
twelve  equal  parts,  each  named  after  a  constellation.  The  series 
runs :  ram,  bull,  twins,  crab,  lion,  virgin,  scales,  scorpion,  archer, 
goat,  water-carrier,  fishes.  Constellations,  indeed,  had  begun  to 
be  named  at  a  very  early  time,  as  is  clear  from  the  practice 
being  common  to  all  mankind.  But  the  specific  arrangement 
of  these  twelve  constellations  as  a  measure  of  the  movement  of 
the  heavenly  bodies  seems  to  have  made  its  first  appearance 
among  the  Chaldean  Babylonians  about  a  thousand  years  before 
Christ.  Prom  them  the  Persians,  and  then  the  Greeks,  learned 
the  zodiac ;  and  with  its  introduction  to  the  Roman  Empire  it 
became  part  of  the  fund  of  knowledge  common  to  the  whole  of 
western  civilization.  It  does  not  appear  to  have  been  accepted 
by  the  Egyptians  until  Roman  imperial  times.  Knowledge  of 
the  zodiac  also  spread  eastward  to  India.  It  seems  to  have  been 
carried  as  far  as  China  by  Buddhist  missionaries,  but  failed  to 
be  seriously  adopted  in  that  country  until  its  reintroduction  by 
Jesuit  missionaries  in  the  seventeenth  century. 

The  Chinese  long  before  had  invented  a  series  of  twelve  signs 
which  has  sometimes  been  called  a  zodiac,  and  gradually  trans¬ 
mitted  it  to  the  adjacent  natives  of  Japan,  Korea,  Mongolia, 
Turkistan,  and  Tibet.  This  seems  to  be  of  independent  origin 
from  the  western  or  Babylonian  zodiac.  It  appears  to  have  been 
devised  to  designate  the  hours,  then  applied  to  other  periods  of 
time,  and  finally  to  the  heavens.  Its  path  through  the  sky  is 
the  reverse  of  the  western  zodiac;  and  its  signs  are  specifically 
different :  rat,  ox,  tiger,  hare,  dragon,  serpent,  horse,  sheep, 
monkey,  hen,  dog,  and  pig.  At  most,  therefore,  it  would  seem 
that  there  might  have  penetrated  to  China  from  the  west  the 
idea  of  dividing  time  or  space  into  twelve  units  and  assigning 
to  each  of  these  the  name  of  an  animal.  The  working  out  and 
utilization  of  the  idea  were  native  Chinese. 

Already  in  ancient  times  the  pictures  of  the  twelve  constel¬ 
lations  of  the  western  zodiac  began  to  be  abbreviated  and  re¬ 
duced  to  symbols.  These  gradually  become  more  and  more 


DIFFUSION 


205 


conventional,  although  evidences  of  their  origin  are  still  visible. 
The  sign  of  the  ram,  for  instance,  as  we  employ  it  in  almanacs, 
shows  the  downward  curling  horns  of  this  animal ;  that  for  the 
ox,  his  rising  horns ;  for  the  archer,  his  arrow,  and  so  on.  These 
cursive  symbols,  once  they  became  fixed,  underwent  some  travels 
of  their  own  which  carried  them  to  unexpected  places.  The 
Negroes  of  the  west  coast  of  Africa  make  gold  finger  rings  orna¬ 
mented  with  the  twelve  zodiacal  symbols  in  their  proper  se¬ 
quence.  They  seem  ignorant  of  the  meaning,  in  fact  do  not 
possess  sufficient  astronomical  knowledge  to  be  able  to  under¬ 
stand  the  use  of  the  signs.  It  also  remains  uncertain  whether 
they  learned  the  set  of  symbols  from  European  navigators  or 
from  the  Arabs  that  have  penetrated  the  northern  half  of  Africa. 
Nevertheless  it  is  the  true  zodiac  which  they  portray,  even 
though  only  as  a  decorative  pattern. 

There  has  been  some  assertion  that  the  zodiac  was  known  to 
the  more  advanced  Middle  American  Indians  between  Arizona 
and  Peru,  but  the  claim  has  also  been  denied.  There  does  appear 
to  have  been  at  least  one  series  of  animal  signs  used  by  the 
Mayas  of  Yucatan  in  an  astronomical  connection.  It  is  not 
known  that  this  series  served  the  true  zodiacal  function  of 
noting  the  positions  of  the  heavenly  bodies.  Further,  the  Maya 
series  consists  of  thirteen  instead  of  twelve  symbols,  and  the 
figures  present  only  distant  resemblances  to  the  Old  World 
zodiac.  There  is  only  one  that  is  the  same  as  in  the  Old  World 
zodiac :  the  scorpion.  The  relationship  of  the  Maya  and  Old 
World  series  is  therefore  unproved,  and  probably  fictitious.  The 
case  however  possesses  theoretical  interest  in  that  it  illustrates 
the  criteria  of  the  determination  of  culture  relationships. 

The  Mexican  zodiac  would  unquestionably  be  interpreted  as 
a  derivative  from  the  Asiatic  one,  even  though  its  symbols  de¬ 
parted  somewhat  from  those  of  the  latter,  provided  that  the 
similar  symbols  came  in  the  same  order.  The  Asiatic  ram  might 
well  be  replaced  by  a  Mexican  deer,  the  lion  by  a  wildcat,  and 
the  virgin  by  a  maize  goddess.  And  if  the  deer,  the  wildcat,  and 
the  maize  goddess  came  in  first,  fifth,  and  sixth  place,  it  would 
be  almost  compulsory  to  look  upon  them  as  superficially  altered 
equivalents  of  the  Old  World  ram,  lion,  and  virgin.  It  is  con¬ 
ceivable  enough  that  similar  individual  symbols  might  independ- 


206 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


ently  come  into  use  in  remote  parts  of  the  world.  But  it  is 
practically  impossible  that  a  series  of  symbols  should  be  put 
into  the  same  arbitrary  sequence  independently.  As  a  mere 
matter  of  mathematical  probability  there  would  be  no  more  than 
an  infinitesimal  chance  of  such  a  complex  coincidence.  If  there¬ 
fore  the  sequential  identity  of  the  American  -series  and  the  Old 
World  zodiac  should  ever  be  proved,1  it  would  be  necessary  to 
believe  that  this  culture  element  was  somehow  carried  into  the 
Middle  American  regions  from  Asia,  either  across  northern 
America  or  across  the  Pacific. 

Identity  of  sequence  failing,  there  might  still  remain  an  in¬ 
stance  of  partial  convergence.  It  is  within  the  range  of  possi¬ 
bility  that  the  Mayas,  who  were  painstaking  astronomers  and 
calculators,  and  who  like  ourselves  named  the  stars  and  constel¬ 
lations  after  animals,  arranged  a  series  of  these  as  a  mnemonic 
or  figurative  aid  in  their  calendrical  reckoning.  This,  however, 
would  be  a  case  of  only  incomplete  parallelism.  The  general 
concept  would  in  that  event  have  been  developed  independently, 
its  specific  working  out  remaining  distinctive. 

On  accurate  analysis  of  culture  phenomena,  this  sort  of  result 
proves  to  be  fairly  frequent.  When  independent  developments 
have  occurred,  there  is  a  basic  or  psychological  similarity,  but 
concrete  details  are  markedly  different.  On  the  other  hand  if 
a  differentiation  from  a  common  source  has  taken  place,  so  that 
true  historical  connection  exists,  some  specific  identity  of  detail 
almost  always  remains  as  evidence.  It  therefore  follows  that  if 
only  it  is  possible  to  get  the  facts  fully  enough,  there  is  no 
theoretical  reason  why  ultimately  all  cultural  phenomena  that 
are  still  hovering  doubtfully  between  the  parallelistic  and  the 
diffusionary  interpretations  should  not  be  positively  explainable 
one  way  or  the  other.  This  of  course  is  not  an  assertion  that 
such  proof  has  been  brought.  In  fact  there  are  far  more  traits 
of  civilization  whose  history  remains  to  be  elucidated  than  have 
yet  been  solved.  But  the  attainments  already  achieved,  and  an 
understanding  of  the  principles  by  which  they  have  been  made, 

i  It  has  not  been.  The  Maya  series  runs:  1  not  made  out,  2  rattlesnake, 
3  tortoise,  4  scorpion,  5  king  vulture,  6  marine  monster,  7  bird,  8  frog  (  ?), 
9  deer  (?),  10  and  11  not  made  out,  12  death,  13  peccary.  Comparison 
with  the  Old  World  list  shows  8-scorpion  and  4-scorpion,  and  1-ram  and 
9-deer  ( ?),  as  the  only  resemblances. 


DIFFUSION 


207 


encourage  hope  for  an  indefinite  increase  of  knowledge  regard¬ 
ing  the  origin  and  growth  of  the  whole  of  human  culture. 

96.  Measures 

Another  increment  of  civilization  due  to  the  Babylonians  is 
a  series  of  metric  standardizations.  These  include  the  division 
of  the  circle  into  three  hundred  and  sixty  degrees,  of  the  day 
into  twenty-four  (originally  twelve)  hours,  of  the  hour  into 
sixty  minutes,  of  the  foot  into  twelve  inches,  and  the  pound — 
as  it  survives  in  our  troy  weight — into  twelve  ounces.  It  is 
apparent  that  the  system  involved  in  these  measures  is  based  on 
the  number  twelve  and  its  multiple  sixty.  The  weights  current 
in  the  ancient  Near  East  also  increased  by  sixties.  On  these 
weights  were  based  the  ancient  money  values.  The  Greek  mina, 
Hebrew  maneh,  approximately  a  pound,  comprised  sixty  shekels 
(or  a  hundred  Athenian  drachmas),  and  sixty  minas  made  a 
talent.  A  talent  of  silver  and  one  of  gold  possessed  different 
values,  but  the  weight  was  the  same.  This  system  the  Greeks 
derived  from  Asia  Minor  and  Phoenicia.  Their  borrowing  of  the 
names,  as  well  as  the  close  correspondence  of  the  actual  weight 
of  the  units,  evidences  their  origin  in  Babylonia  or  adjacent 
Aramaea. 

The  duodecimal  method  of  reckoning  was  carried  west,  be¬ 
came  deeply  ingrained  during  the  Roman  Empire,  and  has  car¬ 
ried  down  through  the  Middle  Ages  to  modern  times.  It  would 
be  going  too  far  to  say  that  every  division  of  units  of  measure 
into  twelve  parts  can  be  traced  directly  to  Babylonia.  Now 
and  then  new  standards  were  arbitrarily  fixed  and  new  names 
given  them.  But  even  when  this  occurred,  the  old  habit  of  reck¬ 
oning  by  twelves  for  which  the  Babylonians  were  responsible, 
was  likely  to  reassert  itself  in  competition  with  the  decimal 
system.  Modern  coinage  systems  have  become  prevailingly 
decimal,  but  it  is  only  a  short  time  ago  that  in  south  Germany 
60  kreuzer  still  made  a  gulden;  and  the  twelve  pence  of  the 
English  shilling  obviously  suggest  themselves. 

Certain  of  these  metric  units  became  fixed  more  than  two 
thousand  years  ago  and  have  descended  to  us  by  an  unbroken 
tradition.  The  Babylonian  degrees,  minutes,  and  seconds,  for 


208 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


instance,  became  an  integral  part  of  the  ancient  astronomy,  were 
taken  up  by  the  Greeks,  incorporated  by  them  in  their  develop¬ 
ment  of  the  system  of  astronomy  known  as  the  Ptolemaic,  and 
thus  became  a  part  of  Roman,  Arab,  and  mediaeval  European 
science.  When  a  few  centuries  ago,  beginning  with  the  intro¬ 
duction  of  the  Copernican  point  of  view,  astronomy  launched 
forward  into  a  new  period  of  progress,  the  old  system  of  reck¬ 
oning  was  so  deeply  rooted  that  it  was  continued  without  pro¬ 
test.  Had  the  first  truly  scientific  beginnings  of  astronomy 
taken  place  as  late  as  those  of  chemistry,  it  is  extremely  doubt¬ 
ful  whether  we  should  now  be  reckoning  360  degrees  in  the  cir¬ 
cumference  of  the  circle.  The  decimal  system  would  almost  cer¬ 
tainly  have  been  applied. 

The  last  few  examples  may  give  the  impression  that  cultural 
diffusion  takes  place  largely  in  regard  to  names  and  numbers. 
They  may  arouse  the  suspicion  that  the  intrinsic  elements  of 
inventions  and  accomplishments  are  less  readily  spread.  This 
is  not  the  case.  In  fact  it  has  happened  time  and  again  in  the 
history  of  civilization  that  the  substance  of  an  art  or  a  knowl¬ 
edge  has  passed  from  one  people  to  another,  while  an  entirely 
new  designation  for  the  acquisition  has  been  coined  by  the  re¬ 
ceiving  people.  The  English  names  of  the  seven  days  of  the 
week  (§  125)  are  a  case  in  point.  If  stress  seems  to  have  been 
laid  here  on  names  and  numbers,  it  is  not  because  they  are  more 
inclined  to  diffusion,  or  most  important,  but  because  their  dif¬ 
fusion  is  more  easily  traced.  They  often  provide  an  infallible 
index  of  historical  connection  when  a  deficiency  of  historical 
records  would  make  it  difficult,  perhaps  impossible,  to  prove 
that  the  common  possession  of  the  thing  itself  went  back  to  a 
single  source.  If  historical  records  are  silent,  as  they  are  only 
too  often,  on  the  origin  of  a  device  among  a  people,  the  occur¬ 
rence  of  the  same  device  at  an  earlier  time  among  another  people 
may  strongly  suggest  that  it  was  transmitted  from  these.  But 
the  indication  is  far  from  constituting  a  proof  because  of  the 
theoretical  possibility  that  the  later  nation  might  have  made  the 
invention  independently.  It  is  chiefly  when  the  device  is  com¬ 
plex  and  the  relation  of  its  parts  identical  that  the  probability 
of  diffusion  approaches  surety.  If  however  not  only  the  thing 
but  its  name  also  are  shared  by  distinct  nations,  doubt  is  re- 


DIFFUSION 


209 


moved.  It  is  obvious  that  peoples  speaking  unrelated  languages 
will  not  coincide  one  time  in  a  thousand  in  using  the  same  name 
for  the  same  idea  independently  of  each  other.  The  play  of 
accident  is  thus  precluded  in  such  cases  and  a  connection  by 
transmission  is  established.  In  fact  the  name  is  the  better 
touchstone.  An  invention  may  be  borrowed  and  be  given  a 
home-made  name.  But  a  foreign  name  would  scarcely  be  adopted 
without  the  object  being  also  accepted. 

97.  Divination 

One  other  Babylonian  invention  may  be  cited  on  account  of  its 
curious  history.  This  is  the  pseudo-science  of  predicting  the 
outcome  of  events  by  examination  of  the  liver  of  animals  sacri¬ 
ficed  to  the  gods.  A  system  of  such  divination,  known  as 
hepatoscopy,  was  worked  out  by  the  Babylonian  priests  perhaps 
by  2,000  B.C.  Their  rules  are  known  from  the  discovery  of 
ancient  clay  models  of  the  liver  with  its  several  lobes,  each  part 
being  inscribed  with  its  significance  according  as  it  might  bear 
such  and  such  appearance.  In  some  way  which  is  not  yet  wholly 
understood,  this  system  was  carried,  like  the  true  arch,  from  the 
Babylonians  to  the  Etruscans.  As  there  are  definite  ancient 
traditions  which  brought  the  Etruscans  into  Italy  from  Asia, 
the  gap  is  however  lessened.  The  Etruscans,  who  were  evi¬ 
dently  addicted  to  priestly  magic,  carried  on  this  liver  divina¬ 
tion  alongside  another  method,  that  of  haruspicy  or  foretelling 
from  the  flight  or  actions  of  birds.  Both  systems  were  learned 
from  them  by  the  Romans,  according  to  Roman  tradition  itself. 

With  the  spread  of  Christianity,  hepatoscopy  and  haruspicy 
died  out  in  the  west.  But  meanwhile  they  had  been  carried  in 
the  opposite  direction  from  their  Babylonian  source  of  origin, 
and  became  established  in  eastern  Asia  and  finally,  in  somewhat 
modified  form,  among  remote  uncivilized  peoples.  The  pagan 
priests  of  Borneo  and  the  Philippines  even  to-day  are  foretelling 
the  future  by  observing  the  flight  of  birds  and  examining  the 
gall  bladder — an  organ  intimately  associated  with  the  liver — 
of  sacrificial  animals.  If  these  primitive  Malaysian  peoples  had 
always  remained  uninfluenced  by  higher  cultures,  their  divina- 
tory  customs  might  be  imputed  to  independent  invention.  They 


210 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


live,  however,  at  no  great  distance  from  the  Asiatic  mainland, 
and  are  known  to  have  been  subjected  to  heavy  cultural  influ¬ 
ences  from  China,  Arabia,  and  especially  India.  Four  cen¬ 
turies  ago,  to  cite  only  a  few  specific  instances,  the  Philippine 
chieftains  went  under  the  title  of  rajah,  the  Hindu  word  for 
king.  In  the  southern  Philippine  islands  there  are  “sultans” 
to-day.  In  all  parts  of  the  Philippines  as  well  as  Borneo,  even 
among  the  rude  tribes  of  the  interior  mountains,  Chinese  jars 
imported  centuries  ago  are  treasured  as  precious  heirlooms. 
With  these  streams  of  higher  culture  flowing  into  the  Malaysian 
islands,  the  only  reasonable  conclusion  is  that  the  arts  of  liver 
and  bird  divination  were  also  imported.  In  fact,  it  seems  prob¬ 
able  that  the  broader  custom  of  sacrificing  animals  to  the  gods 
and  spirits,  a  custom  to  which  the  pagan  Malaysians  still  adhere, 
is  a  part  of  the  same  wave  of  influence  from  the  Orient  which 
has  so  deeply  stamped  the  Homeric  poems  and  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment.  Although  theoretically  it  is  not  surprising  that  hepatos- 
copy  and  haruspicy  still  flourish  among  some  backward  and 
marginally  situated  peoples,  yet,  in  the  concrete  and  at  first 
blush,  it  is  striking  to  find  that  an  institution  which  was  active 
in  Babylonia  three  or  four  thousand  years  ago  should  still  main¬ 
tain  an  unbroken  life  in  Borneo.  Evidently  the  diffusion  prin¬ 
ciple  reaches  far  and  long. 

Another  method  of  foretelling,  which  has  spread  equally  far, 
although  its  flow  has  been  mainly  from  the  east  westward,  is 
scapulimancy,  divination  from  the  cracks  that  develop  in 
scorched  shoulder  blades.  This  seems  to  have  originated  in 
ancient  China  with  the  heating  of  tortoise  shells;  had  spread 
by  the  third  century  after  Christ  to  Japan,  where  deer  shoulder 
blades  were  employed;  and  is  found  to-day  among  the  Koryak 
and  Chukchi  of  northeasternmost  Siberia,  who  utilize  the  same 
bones  from  seals  and  reindeer  respectively.  Elsewhere  domestic 
animals,  above  all  the  sheep,  furnish  the  proper  shoulder  blade. 
All  the  central  Asiatic  nations  as  far  south  as  the  Tibetans  and 
Lolos  are  addicted  to  the  custom,  which  had  official  status  with 
the  Mongol  rulers  in  the  thirteenth  century,  but  must  have  been 
older,  since  it  was  in  vogue  among  the  Byzantine  Greeks  two 
hundred  years  earlier.  The  practice  spread  over  practically  all 
Europe,  where  it  flourished  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  cen- 


DIFFUSION 


211 


turies  and  still  lingers  among  belated  rural  populations;  to 
Morocco  and  perhaps  other  parts  of  north  Africa;  and  in  Asia 
to  South  Arabia,  Afghanistan,  and  westernmost  India.  Scapu- 
limancy  was  not  known  to  the  ancient  Babylonians,  Egyptians, 
Hebrews,  Greeks,  Etruscans,  and  Romans;  it  seems  not  to  have 
penetrated  far  into  India  and  not  at  all  into  the  countries  and 
islands  to  the  east  of  India,  which  are  sheepless  regions ;  and 
it  did  not  obtain  a  foothold  in  North  America,  where  sheep  and 
other  tame  animals  were  also  not  kept.  It  appears  therefore 
that  the  custom,  after  a  period  of  somewhat  wavering  forma¬ 
tion  in  eastern  Asia,  crystallized  into  an  association  with  the 
domesticated  sheep,  forming  a  true  culture  ‘ ‘complex,”  and  was 
then  diffused  almost  as  far  as  this  animal. 

98.  Tobacco 

The  speed  with  which  inventions  sometimes  diffuse  over  large 
areas  is  in  marked  contrast  to  the  slowness  with  which  they 
travel  on  other  occasions.  The  art  or  habit  of  smoking  origi¬ 
nated  in  tropical  America  where  the  tobacco  plant  is  indigenous. 
From  this  middle  region  the  custom  spread,  like  agriculture, 
pottery,  and  weaving,  in  both  directions  over  most  of  north  and 
south  America.  Originally,  it  would  seem,  a  tobacco  leaf  was 
either  rolled  on  itself  to  form  a  rude  cigar,  or  was  stuffed, 
cigarette  fashion,  into  a  reed  or  piece  of  cane.  Columbus  found 
the  West  Indians  puffing  at  cigars.  In  the  Southwestern  United 
States,  the  natives  smoked  from  hollow  reeds.  Farther  into  the 
United  States,  both  to  the  east  and  west,  the  reed  had  become 
a  manufactured  tube  of  wood  or  stone  or  pottery.  This  tubular 
pipe,  something  like  a  magnified  cigarette  holder,  has  the  bowl 
enlarged  at  one  end  to  receive  the  tobacco.  It  has  to  be  held 
more  or  less  vertically.  This  form  has  survived  to  the  present 
day  among  the  California  Indians.  As  the  tubular  pipe  spread 
into  the  central  and  eastern  United  States,  it  was  elaborated. 
The  bowl  was  made  to  rise  from  the  top  of  the  pipe,  instead  of 
merely  forming  its  end.  This  proved  a  convenience,  for  the  pipe 
had  now  no  longer  to  be  pointed  skyward  to  be  smoked.  Here 
then  was  a  pipe  with  a  definite  bowl ;  but  its  derivation  from  the 
straight  tubular  pipe  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  bowl  was 


212 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


most  frequently  set  not  at  the  end  of  the  stem,  as  we  “auto¬ 
matically”  think  a  pipe  should  be,  but  near  its  middle.  The 
bowl  evidently  represented  a  secondary  addition  which  there 
seemed  no  more  reason  to  place  at  the  end  than  in  the  middle 
of  the  pipe ;  and  the  latter  happened  to  become  the  fashion. 

All  this  evolution  took  place  at  least  a  thousand  years  ago, 
probably  much  longer.  Elaborate  stone  pipes  have  been  discov¬ 
ered  in  the  earthworks  left  by  the  Mound  Builders  of  the  Ohio 
Valley,  a  people  whose  very  existence  had  been  forgotten  when 
the  whites  first  came.  Californian  stone  pipes  occur  well  down 
toward  the  bottom  of  shell  mounds  estimated  to  have  required 
three  or  four  thousand  years  to  accumulate. 

Here  and  there  this  slow  diffusion  suffered  checks.  In  the 
Andean  region  of  South  America  tobacco  came  into  competition 
with  coca,  a  plant  whose  leaf  was  chewed.  The  effect  of  the 
contained  alkaloid  is  to  prevent  fatigue  and  hunger.  Of  the 
two,  coca  triumphed  over  tobacco,  possibly  because  its  action  is 
more  drug-like.  In  North  America,  on  the  other  hand,  tribes 
that  had  not  adopted  maize  and  bean  agriculture,  sometimes 
tilled  tobacco  patches.  With  them,  tobacco  cultivation  had  out¬ 
stripped  the  spread  of  so  important  an  institution  as  food  agri¬ 
culture.  In  the  extreme  parts  of  North  America,  climatic  factors 
checked  the  growth  of  tobacco,  either  wild  or  cultivated.  Where 
the  supply  was  scarce,  it  was  either  diluted  with  pulverized  tree 
bark,  as  by  many  tribes  of  the  central  United  States,  or  it  was 
eaten,  as  by  a  number  of  groups  on  the  Pacific  coast.  To  these 
latter,  tobacco  seemed  too  precious  to  set  fire  to  and  lightly  puff 
away.  They  mixed  it  with  lime  from  burnt  shells  and  swal¬ 
lowed  it.  Taken  in  this  form,  a  small  quantity  produces  a  pow¬ 
erful  effect.  In  the  farthest  north  of  the  continent,  even  this 
device  had  not  obtained  a  foothold.  The  development  of  inter¬ 
tribal  trade  was  too  slender  and  intermittent  for  anything  but 
valuables,  let  alone  an  article  of  daily  consumption,  to  be  trans¬ 
ported  over  long  distances.  The  result  was  that  the  Eskimo, 
when  first  discovered,  knew  nothing  of  tobacco  or  pipes. 

The  use  of  tobacco  was  quickly  carried  to  the  Old  World 
by  the  Spaniards,  and  before  long  all  Europe  was  smoking. 
Throughout  that  continent,  irrespective  of  language,  the  plant 
is  known  by  modifications  of  the  Spanish  name  tabaco,  which  in 


DIFFUSION 


213 


turn  seems  based  on  a  native  American  name  for  cigar.  By 
the  Spaniards  and  Portuguese,  and  later  also  by  the  Arabs,  the 
habit  of  smoking  was  carried  to  various  points  on  the  shores  of 
Africa,  Asia,  and  the  East  Indies.  Thence  it  spread  inland. 
Native  African  tribes,  and  others  in  New  Guinea,  who  had  never 
seen  a  white  man,  have  been  found  not  only  growing  and  smok¬ 
ing  tobacco,  but  firmly  believing  that  their  ancestors  from  time 
immemorial  had  done  so.  This  is  a  characteristic  illustration  of 
the  short-livedness  of  group  memory  and  the  unreliability  of 
oral  tradition. 

In  northeastern  Siberia,  where  the  Russians  introduced  to¬ 
bacco,  a  special  form  of  pipe  came  into  use.  It  has  a  narrow 
bowl  flaring  at  the  top.  Seen  from  above,  this  bowl  looks  like 
a  disk  with  a  rather  small  hole  in  the  center.  In  profile  it  is 
almost  like  a  capital  T.  It  is  set  on  the  end  of  the  pipe-stem. 
This  stem  may  be  straight  or  flattened  and  curved.  This  form 
of  pipe,  along  with  tobacco  as  a  trade  article,  crossed  Behring 
Strait  and  was  taken  up  by  the  Alaska  Eskimo.  That  this  pipe 
is  not  of  Eskimo  origin  is  shown  by  its  close  resemblance  to  the 
Chukchi  pipe  of  Siberia.  The  fact  that  it  is  impossible  for 
the  Eskimo  to  grow  tobacco  corroborates  the  late  introduction, 
as  does  the  Alaska  Eskimo  name :  tawak.  In  short,  smoking 
reached  the  Eskimo  only  after  having  made  the  round  of  the 
globe.  Originating  in  Middle  America,  the  custom  spread  very 
anciently  to  its  farthest  native  limits  without  being  able  to 
penetrate  to  the  Eskimo.  As  soon  as  the  Spaniards  appeared 
on  the  scene,  the  custom  started  on  a  fresh  career  of  travel  and 
rolled  rapidly  eastward  about  the  globe  until  it  reentered 
America  in  the  hitherto  non-smoking  region  of  Alaska. 

A  second  invasion  of  America  by  a  non-American  form  of 
pipe  occurred  in  the  eastern  United  States.  The  old  pipe  of  this 
region,  as  already  stated,  had  its  bowl  set  well  back  from  the 
end  of  the  stem.  The  whole  object  thus  had  nearly  the  shape 
of  an  inverted  capital  T,  whereas  the  European  pipe  might  be 
compared  to  an  L  laid  on  its  back.  After  the  English  settlers 
had  become  established  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  a  tomahawk  pipe 
was  introduced  by  them  for  trade  purposes.  This  was  a  metal 
hatchet  with  the  butt  of  the  blade  hollowed  out  into  a  bowl 
which  connected  with  a  bore  running  through  the  handle.  One 


214 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


end  of  the  blade  served  to  chop,  the  other  to  smoke.  The  hatchet 
handle  was  also  the  pipe  stem.  The  combination  implement 
could  be  used  as  a  weapon  in  war  and  as  a  symbol  of  peace  in 
council.  This  doubleness  of  purpose  caused  it  to  appeal  to  the 
Indian.  The  heads  of  these  iron  tomahawk  pipes  were  made 
in  England  for  the  Indian  trade.  They  became  so  popular  that 
those  natives  who  were  out  of  reach  of  established  traders,  or 
who  were  too  poor  to  buy  the  metal  hatchet-pipes,  began  to 
imitate  them  in  the  stone  which  their  forefathers  had  used.  In 
the  Missouri  valley,  a  generation  ago,  among  tribes  like  the 
Sioux  and  the  Blackfeet,  imitation  tomahawk  pipes,  which  would 
never  have  withstood  usage  as  hatchets,  were  being  made  of  red 
catlinite  together  with  the  standard,  native,  inverted-T  pipes. 
One  of  the  two  coexisting  forms  represented  a  form  indigenous 
to  the  region  since  a  thousand  years  or  more,  the  other  an  inno¬ 
vation  developed  in  Europe  as  the  result  of  the  discovery  of 
America  and  then  reintroduced  among  the  aborigines.  Diffusion 
sometimes  follows  unexpectedly  winding  routes. 

99.  Migrations 

It  may  seem  strange  that  with  all  the  reference  to  diffusion 
in  the  foregoing  pages,  there  has  been  so  little  mention  of  migra¬ 
tion.  The  reason  is  that  migrations  of  peoples  are  a  special  and 
not  the  normal  means  of  culture  spread.  They  form  the  crass 
instances  of  the  process,  easily  conceived  by  a  simple  mind.  That 
a  custom  travels  as  a  people  travels  with  it,  is  something  that 
a  child  can  understand.  The  danger  is  in  stopping  thought 
there  and  invoking  a  national  migration  for  every  important 
culture  diffusion,  whereas  it  is  plain  that  most  culture  changes 
have  occurred  through  subtler  and  more  gradual  operations. 
The  Mongols  overran  vast  areas  of  Asia  and  Europe  without 
seriously  modifying  the  civilization  of  those  tracts.  The  accre¬ 
tions  that  most  influenced  them,  such  as  writing  and  Buddhism, 
came  to  them  by  the  quieter  and  more  pervasive  process  of 
peaceful  penetration,  in  which  but  few  individuals  were  active. 
We  are  all  aware  that  printing  and  the  steam  engine,  the  doc¬ 
trine  of  evolution  and  the  habit  of  riming  verses,  have  spread 
through  western  civilization  without  conquests  or  migrations, 


DIFFUSION 


215 


and  that  each  year’s  fashions  flow  out  from  Paris  in  the  same 
way.  When  however  it  is  a  question  of  something  remote,  like 
the  origin  of  Chinese  civilization,  it  is  only  necessary  for  it  to 
he  pointed  out  that  the  early  forms  of  Chinese  culture  bear 
certain  resemblances  to  the  early  culture  of  Mesopotamia,  and 
we  are  sure  to  have  some  one  producing  a  theory  that  marches 
the  Chinese  out  of  the  west  with  their  culture  packed  away  in 
little  bundles  on  their  backs.  That  is  far  more  picturesque,  of 
course,  more  appealing  to  the  emotions,  than  to  conceive  of  a 
slow,  gradual  transfusion  stretching  over  a  thousand  years.  In 
proportion  as  the  known  facts  are  few,  imagination  soars  un¬ 
checked.  It  is  not  because  migrations  of  large  bodies  of  men 
are  rare  or  wholly  negligible  in  their  influence  on  civilization 
that  they  have  been  touched  so  lightly  here,  but  because  we  all 
tend,  through  the  romantic  and  sensationalistic  streak  in  us,  to 
think  more  largely  in  terms  of  them  than  the  sober  truth  war¬ 
rants.  It  is  in  culture-history  as  in  geology:  the  occasional 
eruptions,  quakings,  and  other  cataclysms  stir  the  mind,  but  the 
work  of  change  is  mainly  accomplished  by  quieter  processes, 
going  on  unceasingly,  and  often  almost  imperceptible  until  their 
results  accumulate. 


CHAPTER  IX 


PARALLELS 


100.  General  observations. — 101.  Cultural  context. — 102.  Universal  ele¬ 
ments. — 103.  Secondary  parallelism  in  the  Indo-European  languages. — 104. 
Textile  patterns  and  processes. — 105.  Primary  parallelism:  the  beginnings 
of  writing. — 106.  Time  reckoning. — 107.  Scale  and  pitch  of  Pan’s  pipes. — 
108.  Bronze. — 109.  Zero. — 110.  Exogamic  institutions. — 111.  Parallels  and 
psychology. — 112.  Limitations  on  the  parallelistic  principle. 

100.  General  Observations 

The  principle  of  truly  independent  or  convergent  invention  is 
more  difficult  to  establish  by  positive  examples  than  imitative 
diffusion.  It  has  often  been  assumed  as  operative,  more  rarely 
proved;  and  even  in  the  latter  cases  has  perhaps  never  been 
found  to  lead  to  complete  identity. 

In  fact,  the  first  observation  to  be  made  is  that  resemblance 
must  not  be  too  close  if  independent  development  is  to  be  the 
explanation.  A  complex  device  used  in  two  or  more  parts  of 
the  world  suggests  a  connection  between  them  in  very  proportion 
to  its  complexity.  A  combination  of  two  or  even  three  elements 
might  conceivably  have  been  repeated  independently.  A  com¬ 
bination  of  five  or  ten  parts  serving  an  identical  purpose  in  an 
identical  manner  must  necessarily  appeal  as  impossible  of  having 
been  hit  upon  more  than  once.  One  thinks  almost  under  com¬ 
pulsion,  in  such  a  case,  of  historical  connection,  of  a  transfer¬ 
ence  of  the  idea  or  machine  from  one  people  to  the  other. 

If  the  resemblance  includes  any  inessential  or  arbitrary 
parts,  such  as  an  ornament,  a  proportion  that  so  far  as  utility 
is  concerned  might  be  considerably  varied  but  is  not,  a  ran¬ 
domly  chosen  number,  or  a  name,  the  possibility  of  independent 
development  is  wholly  ruled  out.  Such  extrinsic  features  would 
not  recur  together  once  in  a  million  times.  Their  association 
forces  a  presumption  of  common  origin,  even  though  it  be  dif¬ 
ficult  to  account  for  the  historical  connection  involved.  The 
significance  of  names  in  this  situation  has  already  been  com¬ 
mented  on. 


216 


PARALLELS 


217 


There  is  nothing  arbitrary  about  this  limitation  on  the  paral- 
lelistic  principle.  We  all  apply  similar  checks  in  practical  life. 
If  in  a  court  of  law  several  witnesses  testify  to  the  same  facts 
in  the  same  language,  without  one  of  them  adding  or  diminish¬ 
ing  an  item,  if  they  follow  the  identical  order  of  events,  if  even 
details  such  as  the  precise  minute  of  an  occurrence  are  stated 
without  variation,  judge  and  jury  will  infallibly  suspect  that  the 
several  testimonies  go  back  to  a  single  source  of  inspiration. 
Eyewitnesses  will  differ.  They  have  seen  from  different  angles; 
have  followed  events  with  attention  that  varied  according  to 
their  participation  and  their  previous  habits  and  training;  have 
reacted  with  individually  colored  emotion.  So  with  nations. 
Their  customs,  interests,  faculties  are  never  wholly  alike.  Their 
independent  inventions  and  innovations,  always  springing  out 
of  a  distinctive  soil,  therefore  necessarily  take  on  a  distinctive 
aspect  even  when  they  embody  the  same  idea.  In  the  degree  that 
the  form  as  well  as  the  substance  of  culture  traits  coincide,  does 
the  probability  of  independent  evolution  diminish  in  favor  of 
some  sort  of  connection. 

101.  Cultural  Context 

The  presence  or  absence  of  other  connections  is  also  a  factor 
of  greatest  importance.  In  other  words,  no  fact  relating  to 
human  civilization  may  be  judged  wholly  without  reference  to 
its  context  or  background.  If  there  are  known  connections, 
either  in  space  or  in  time,  between  two  nations,  the  likelihood 
of  their  having  separately  evolved  a  common  trait  is  much  less 
than  as  between  two  peoples  in  different  continents  or  separated 
by  thousands  of  years.  It  is  not  known  precisely  how  knowledge 
of  the  true  arch  and  of  liver  divination  were  carried  from 
ancient  western  Asia  to  the  Etruscans  of  Italy.  Yet  the  fact 
that  Babylonia  and  Etruria  shared  two  such  specific  culture 
traits  as  these,  greatly  increases  the  probability  for  each  one 
having  been  borrowed  from  the  Asiatic  by  the  European  people. 
When  the  consideration  is  added  that  the  ancients  had  traditions 
of  the  Etruscans  having  come  to  Italy  out  of  Asia  Minor,  the 
likelihood  of  diffusion  is  strengthened  to  the  point  of  practical 
certainty. 


218 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


Connection  in  space  is  a  particularly  cogent  argument  in 
favor  of  diffusion,  because  of  its  powerful  presumption  of  ac¬ 
companying  communication.  When  several  hundred  Indian 
tribes  without  a  break  in  their  ranks  between  Quebec  and 
Argentina  cultivate  maize,  it  would  be  absurd  to  dream  of  each 
of  them  having  originated  the  domestication  of  the  plant  for 
itself.  To  be  sure,  it  is  logically  conceivable  that  maize  agricul¬ 
ture  was  independently  developed  by  two  or  three  of  the  most 
advanced  tribes  of  the  hundreds  and  then  became  diffused  until 
the  two  or  three  areas  of  dispersion  met  and  coalesced  into  one 
greater  area.  Yet  the  principle  that  economy  of  explanation 
is  the  best  would  militate  even  against  this  interpretation  as 
compared  with  diffusion  from  a  single  center,  unless  there  were 
definite  indications  in  favor  of  the  multiple  origin  explanation. 
Such  indications  might  be  radically  distinct  types  of  the  plant 
or  of  agricultural  implements  in  several  parts  of  the  maize 
area. 

So,  when  the  tribes  on  the  Alaskan  and  Siberian  sides  of 
Behring  Sea  relate  similar  Raven  legends,  the  geographical 
proximity  is  so  close  that  it  would  be  pedantic  to  let  the  fact 
that  two  continents  are  involved  stand  in  the  way  of  an  explana¬ 
tion  by  diffusion.  Even  where  the  distribution  of  a  trait  pene¬ 
trates  much  farther  into  both  America  and  Asia,  as  is  true  of 
the  composite  bow  (§210),  the  continuity  of  area  leaves  little 
doubt  as  to  diffusion  from  a  single  center,  especially  since  it  is 
reinforced  by  other  traits  showing  the  same  intercontinental 
distribution :  the  Magic  Flight  story,  for  instance.  It  is  only 
when  the  areas  are  discrete  as  well  as  remote,  when  other  simi¬ 
larities  between  them  are  few  or  absent,  when  their  cultural 
backgrounds  are  radically  dissimilar,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
couvade,  that  parallelism  begins  to  knock  at  the  door  of  inter¬ 
pretation  with  serious  hope  of  admittance. 

102.  Universal  Elements 

When  a  culture  trait  is  very  ancient  and  of  practically  world¬ 
wide  occurrence,  it  becomes  difficult  to  estimate  between  diffu¬ 
sion  and  independent  invention.  The  fire-drill,  flint  chipping, 
the  bow  and  arrow,  the  doctrine  of  animism  or  belief  in  souls 


PARALLELS 


219 


and  spirits,  sympathetic  magic,  are  in  this  class.  The  very  uni¬ 
versality  of  these  elements  tends  to  obliterate  tangible  evidence 
as  to  their  histories.  A  generation  or  two  ago  it  was  generally 
taken  for  granted  that  such  devices  and  beliefs  as  these  sprang 
more  or  less  spontaneously  out  of  the  human  mind  as  soon  as 
man  had  traversed  a  certain  short  distance  of  the  evolutionary 
road  that  led  him  away  from  the  brutes.  At  present,  anthro¬ 
pological  opinion  is  more  cautious  about  such  assumptions.  It 
is  perhaps  spontaneous  enough  for  people  in  the  habit  of  using 
tools  to  try  to  fashion  them  from  stone  if  other  materials  be 
lacking,  and  easy  for  a  nation  accustomed  to  projectile  weapons 
to  invent  the  bow  without  ever  having  learned  of  it.  But  this 
is  far  from  proving  what  a  people  without  these  habits  might 
do.  Intelligent  as  an  ape  is,  and  gifted  with  manual  dexterity, 
it  rarely  enters  his  mind  to  throw  a  stone  as  a  missile  and  never 
to  split  it  into  a  knife  or  weapon.  For  all  we  know,  it  may 
have  cost  our  ancestors  untold  mental  energy  to  bring  themselves 
to  the  point  of  fashioning  their  first  stone  implements ;  so  much, 
indeed,  that  it  is  possible  all  of  them  did  without  until  one  more 
gifted  or  fortunate  group  made  the  difficult  invention  which 
was  then  imitated  by  the  others.  It  is  temptingly  but  fatally 
easy  to  project  our  habits  of  mind  into  primitive  man — much 
easier  to  imagine  ourselves  in  his  position  than  to  imagine  him, 
without  reference  to  ourselves,  as  he  was.  Animal  psychologists 
have  learned  not  to  anthropomorphize,  that  is,  endow  the  lower 
animals  with  specifically  human  mind  processes.  Anthropolo¬ 
gists  have  learned  to  guard  against  the  similar  pitfall  of  inter¬ 
preting  low  cultures  by  the  standards  of  our  own,  of  assuming 
that  because  a  thing  seems  “ natural”  to  us  it  must  have  seemed 
natural  and  therefore  have  been  done  by  any  savage.  It  is  clear 
that  what  did  not  happen  was  for  every  tribe  or  race  to  originate 
for  itself  its  fire-making,  flint-chipping,  bows,  animism,  and 
magic.  It  is  conceivable  that  each  of  these  culture  products 
traces  back  to  a  single  source  in  human  history.  There  are 
authorities  who  have  held  this  very  opinion ;  some  expressedly, 
others  by  implication.  It  is  not  necessary  to  go  so  far;  in  fact, 
wiser  not  to,  because  none  of  these  matters  is  yet  susceptible 
of  real  proof.  But  it  does  seem  profitable  to  recognize  the  pos¬ 
sibility  of  the  truth  of  such  views,  and  that  the  drift  of  accu- 


220  ANTHROPOLOGY 

mulating  knowledge  and  experienced  interpretation  is  in  their 
direction. 

A  simple  consideration  which  has  too  often  been  neglected  is 
that  diffusion  and  imitation  undisputedly  do  take  place  in  cul¬ 
ture  on  a  vast  scale.  So  far  as  independent  developments  occur, 
be  that  rarely  or  frequently,  they  are  therefore  sure  to  be  more 
or  less  intertwined  with  disseminations.  Even  one  particular 
device  may  be  partly  borrowed  and  partly  modified  or  further 
developed  by  original  effort.  Still  more  intimate  must  be  the 
combination  of  native  and  diffused  elements  in  the  whole  culture 
of  any  people.  To  wage  an  abstract  battle  as  between  two  op¬ 
posite  principles  is  sterile,  when  their  manifestations  are  admit¬ 
tedly  frequent  for  one  and  at  least  certain  for  the  other.  It  is 
clearly  more  profitable  to  examine  the  associations  and  relations 
of  diffusion  and  convergence,  the  conditions  under  which  they 
supplement  each  other.  Besides  parallels  springing  up  wholly 
independently,  there  are  two  ways  in  which  their  relations  to 
diffusion  may  be  conceived.  An  original  single  growth  or  wave 
of  diffusion  may  differentiate  into  local  or  temporal  modifica¬ 
tions,  which  even  after  separation  continue  to  develop  along 
parallel  lines  or  reconverge.  Or,  on  the  other  hand,  independent 
starts  in  similar  direction  may  become  merged  in,  or  assimilated 
by,  a  subsequent  diffusion. 

103.  Secondary  Parallelism  in  the  Indo-European 

Languages 

Parallel  growth  secondary  to  a  former  unity  and  differentia¬ 
tion  is  illustrated  by  the  Indo-European  languages.  All  the 
known  ancient  forms  of  this  speech  family,  Sanskrit,  Avestan, 
Greek,  Latin,  Gothic,  were  highly  inflecting  and  compounding. 
Their  tendency  was  synthetic  (§51,  57). 

Grammatical  ideas  such  as  voice,  tense,  number,  case,  were 
expressed  by  elements  affixed  to  the  word  stem  and  incapable  of 
a  separate  existence.  For  they  will  have  loved  Latin  says 
ama-v-eru-nt.  The  -v-  has  the  force  of  have,  the  -eru-  of  will, 
- nt  of  they ;  but  none  of  these  parts  can  be  used  alone,  as  their 
equivalents  in  English  can  be,  or  as  in  French  Us  auront  aime. 
The  two  latter  languages  are  analytical.  They  break  an  idea 


PARALLELS 


221 


into  parts  which  they  express  by  separate  words  that  change 
form  but  little.  They  retain  only  fragments  of  conjugations  and 
declensions.  Sanskrit  had  eight  noun  cases,  Latin  six;  English 
has  only  two,  the  subjective-objective  and  the  possessive,  and 
French  only  one,  or  rather  no  case-form  at  all. 

This  development  toward  a  more  analytical  form  is  not  only 
traceable  in  several  non-Indo-European  speech  families,  such  as 
Chinese  and  Malayo-Polynesian  (§61),  but  has  gone  on  in  all 
the  branches  of  Indo-European.  It  is  visible  in  the  growth  of 
English  from  Anglo-Saxon;  of  French,  Spanish,  and  Italian 
from  Latin ;  of  modern  from  ancient  Persian ;  of  Hindi  and 
Bengali  from  Sanskrit.  True,  some  of  these  have  been  in  con¬ 
tact,  like  the  Germanic  and  Latin  languages,  and  might  there¬ 
fore  be  imagined  to  have  set  one  another  an  example,  although 
there  is  little  evidence  that  languages  seriously  influence  each 
other’s  forms.  But  many  of  the  Indo-European  idioms  have  not 
been  in  contact  at  all  for  thousands  of  years.  The  Germanic 
and  the  Indo-Iranic  branches,  for  instance,  must  have  separated 
at  least  four  thousand  years  ago.  For  the  greater  part  of  this 
period,  accordingly,  the  related  but  no  longer  communicating 
languages  that  have  resulted  in  modern  English  and  Bengali, 
to  take  only  one  instance,  have  independently  driven  toward  the 
same  goal  of  more  and  more  analytical  structure.  It  may  well 
be  that  the  hidden  germ  of  this  impulse  lay  implanted  in  the 
common  Indo-European  mother-tongue  at  the  time  of  its  dif¬ 
ferentiation  five  or  more  thousand  years  ago.  But  the  move¬ 
ment  of  its  daughters  has  certainly  been  an  astoundingly  parallel 
one. 


104.  Textile  Patterns  and  Processes 

An  analogous  situation  is  provided  by  the  similarity  of  dia¬ 
mond  shaped  patterns  woven  in  twilled  baskets  in  parts  of  North 
and  South  America,  Asia  and  the  East  Indies,  and  Africa.  This 
looks  like  parallelism  and  is  parallelism.  But  it  is  clearly  a 
secondary  result  of  the  twilling  process,  as  this,  in  turn,  flour- 

1  Grammarians  generally  recognize  a  greater  number  because  they  follow 
the  example  of  ancient  grammarians  and  are  interested  in  the  history  or 
theory  of  language.  But  any  one  giving  a  purely  empirical  picture  of 
French  or  English  would  put  the  situation  as  it  is  put  here. 


222 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


ishes  most  vigorously  where  woody  monocotyledenous  plants — 
cane,  bamboo,  palms — are  available  to  furnish  hard,  durable, 
flat,  pliable  splints.  The  technique  of  the  weave  is  such  that  if 
materials  of  two  colors  are  used,  the  characteristic  patterns 
evolve  themselves  almost  of  necessity.  The  twilling  process  may 
have  been  invented  independently  in  several  of  the  regions  ad¬ 
dicted  to  it,  or  have  been  devised  only  once  in  the  world’s  history. 
It  is  too  simple  and  too  ancient  a  technique  for  modern  knowl¬ 
edge  to  choose  between  the  alternatives  with  positiveness.  Bra¬ 
zilian  and  East  Indian  patterns  are  much  more  likely  to  have 
been  each  developed  on  the  spot,  as  derivatives  from  the  more 
fundamental  and  possibly  transmitted  twilling  process. 

The  coiling  technique  for  making  baskets  looks  from  its  dis¬ 
tribution  in  Africa  and  about  the  Mediterranean,  in  northeast 
Asia  and  northwest  America,  in  the  southern  extremity  of  South 
America,  in  Malaysia  and  Australia,  as  if  it  had  originated 
independently  several  times,  and  there  is  partial  confirmation 
in  the  fact  that  different  varieties  of  coiling  are  typical  of  most 
of  the  areas.  If  however  further  knowledge  should  connect  the 
now  separate  areas  of  coiling,  the  art  would  then  have  to  be 
regarded  as  probably  due  to  diffusion  from  a  single  invention. 
In  that  case,  however,  special  varieties,  such  as  half-hitch  coil¬ 
ing  in  Tierra  del  Fuego  and  Tasmania,  and  single-rod  coiling 
in  the  East  Indies  and  California,  would  remain  as  instances 
of  secondary  parallelism  affecting  particular  aspects  or  parts 
of  the  generic  process. 

A  blending  of  diffusion  and  parallelism  is  apparent  also  in 
other  textile  processes.  The  fundamentals,  as  embodied  in  simple 
woven  basketry,  mats,  and  wiers,  were  probably  carried  into 
America  by  the  first  immigrants.  Weaving  from  suspended 
warps  and  in  an  incomplete  loom  frame  may  possibly  have  been 
similarly  transmitted  by  diffusion  or  have  been  developed  locally. 
Thread  spinning,  however,  the  complete  loom,  and  the  lieddle 
were  clearly  devised  in  the  middle  region  of  America  independ¬ 
ently  of  their  invention  in  the  Old  World,  as  is  evident  from 
their  absence  in  the  connecting  areas  of  North  America  and 
Siberia  (§  187,  188).  But  the  treadle  shed,  the  next  step  in  the 
Eastern  hemisphere,  was  never  invented  in  the  Western,  so  that 
at  this  point  the  parallelism  ends. 


PARALLELS 


223 


Again,  diffusion  and  convergence  both  enter  into  the  history 
of  what  is  known  as  resist  dyeing,  that  is,  the  covering  of 
portions  of  textile  patterns  before  immersion  into  the  dye. 
Batik,  when  wax  is  used  as  the  protecting  medium,  is  one  form 
of  resist  dyeing.  Another  method  is  “to  tie  little  bunches  of 
cloth  with  a  cord  either  soaked  in  clay  or  wax  or  spun  from 
fiber  which  has  no  affinity  for  the  colors  and  then  dip  the  tied 
web  into  the  pot.”  In  the  Old  World,  tie  dyeing  is  of  Asiatic, 
probably  of  Indian  origin,  and  was  in  use  by  the  seventh  cen¬ 
tury,  perhaps  earlier.  The  Mohammedan  conquests  carried  the 
art  to  Malaysia  on  the  one  hand,  to  western  Africa  and  Spain 
on  the  other,  whence  it  was  transmitted  to  the  Indians  of  Guate¬ 
mala  after  their  subjugation  by  the  Spaniards — like  the  double¬ 
headed  eagle.  The  Peruvians,  however,  had  long  before  hit  upon 
the  same  art,  as  attested  by  textile  remains  in  pre-Columbian 
graves.  Here  then,  we  have  a  wide  and  long  enduring  diffusion 
of  the  general  resist  dyeing  process,  and  a  locally  limited  in¬ 
stance  of  independent  parallelism  for  one  phase  of  it. 

105.  Primary  Parallelism:  the  Beginnings  op  Writing 

Primary  parallelism  can  be  established  fairly  frequently,  but 
usually  only  with  reference  to  a  general  principle,  the  appli¬ 
cations  of  which  invariably  retain  evidence  of  their  original 
separateness. 

An  illustration  is  furnished  by  the  history  of  writing,  as 
sketched  in  the  introductory  paragraphs  of  the  chapter  on  the 
Alphabet  (§  130-133).  Many  nations  have  entered  the  simple 
stage  of  pictography.  Only  a  few  are  known  to  have  gone  on 
to  the  stage  of  rebus  or  transitional  writing — mixed  pictograms 
or  ideograms  and  phonograms.  Of  these,  certainly  two  and 
possibly  as  many  as  four,  five,  or  six  devised  their  own  rebus 
systems:  the  Egyptians,  Sumerians,  Chinese,  Plittites,  Cretans, 
and  Mayas,  in  four  continents.  But  here  the  parallel  ceases. 
The  content  of  the  systems,  the  signs  themselves  and  their 
sound  values,  are  wholly  different.  The  similarity  applies  only 
to  the  principle  of  reading  pictures  or  symbols  for  their  pic¬ 
tureless  homonyms.  The  concrete  application  of  this  method  has 
nothing  in  common  in  the  several  parallel  cases.  Finally,  com- 


224 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


plete  phonetic  writing  was  invented  bnt  once,  all  alphabets,  how¬ 
ever  diverse,  being  historical  descendants  of  the  primitive  Semitic 
alphabet,  which  served  as  the  sole  source  of  a  tremendous  dif¬ 
fusion  (§  134-149). 

It  is  worth  noting,  however,  that  the  first  or  pictographic  stage 
of  writing  is  by  no  means  a  thing  that  flows  instinctively  from 
all  men.  There  are  peoples,  like  some  of  the  Indians  of  Brazil 
and  California,  deficient  in  the  ability  or  habit,  according  as 
one  may  wish  to  term  it,  of  expressing  themselves  in  linear 
representations.  They  do  not  draw  rude  outlines  to  depict  ob¬ 
jects.  Asked  to  do  so,  they  profess  inability,  though  set  an 
example,  or  make  a  pathetically  crude  attempt.  Their  failure 
or  refusal  does  not  argue  inherent  lack  of  faculty,  since  the 
children  of  the  same  races,  when  put  to  school,  draw  figures 
with  interest  and  often  with  success.  The  attitude  of  the  adults 
is  rather  that  of  a  person  who  had  never  heard  even  a  snatch 
of  music  of  any  kind  or  seen  an  instrument,  being  taken  to  a 
concert  and  then  asked  to  compose  a  simple  little  song.  He 
would  look  upon  this  task  as  transcendently  beyond  his  powers. 
There  are  no  songless  nations,  but  there  are  pictureless  ones. 
Consequently  picture-writing  is  not  the  spontaneous  product 
which  we,  who  as  children  are  reared  in  an  environment  of 
pictures,  might  imagine  it  to  be.  If  pictography  were  due  to 
a  primary  parallelism,  to  a  spontaneous  outflow  of  the  human 
mind,  its  absences  would  be  in  need  of  explanation.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  is  the  result  of  a  single  diffusing  development, 
this  must  have  an  antiquity  of  more  than  fifteen  thousand 
years,  as  attested  by  the  Old  Stone  Age  paintings,  and  the 
failure  of  certain  peoples  to  be  affected  is  also  in  need  of 
explanation. 

Another  case  of  parallelism  is  the  recurring  tendency  to  write 
syllabically  instead  of  alphabetically.  The  Hindu  inclination  in 
this  direction  is  discussed  below  (§146).  That  the  phonetic 
symbols  of  rebus  systems  should  be  largely  syllabic  is  small 
wonder,  for  they  are  pictures  of  things  named  with  whole  words. 
But  the  Hindu  script  was  derived  from  a  Semitic  letter  alphabet, 
and  its  essentially  syllabic  nature  thus  represents  a  reversion. 
The  Japanese  in  adding  47  purely  phonetic  characters  to  the 
Chinese  ideograms  in  order  to  express  grammatical  elements, 


PARALLELS 


225 


proper  names,  and  the  like  in  their  speech,  denoted  a  syllable 
by  each  character.  A  third  as  many  consonant  and  vowel  signs 
would  have  answered  the  same  purpose.  When  Sequoya  the 
Cherokee  devised  an  alphabet  for  his  people  in  order  to  equate 
them  with  the  whites,  he  incorporated  the  forms  of  a  number 
of  the  English  letters,  but  the  values  of  all  his  signs  were  syl¬ 
labic.  The  same  holds  of  the  West  African  Yei  writing  invented 
in  the  nineteenth  century  by  a  native.  He  had  had  enough 
mission  schooling  to  be  stimulated  by  the  idea  of  writing,  but 
‘  *  instinctively  ’  ’  fell  back  on  syllable  signs  even  though  this 
necessitated  two  hundred  different  characters. 

There  is  an  evident  psychological  reason  for  the  uniformity 
of  these  endeavors:  we  image  words,  in  fact  produce  them,  in 
syllables,  not  in  sounds.  Any  one,  in  slow  speech,  tends  to  syl¬ 
labify,  whereas  few  wholly  illiterate  people  can  be  induced  with¬ 
out  patient  training  to  utter  the  separate  consonants  and  vowels 
of  a  word,  even  for  the  purpose  of  teaching  a  foreigner. 

This  case  of  parallelism  rests,  therefore,  on  a  psychological 
fact  of  apperception.  But  it  was  the  “ accidents”  of  culture, 
not  innate  psychology,  that  determined  the  particular  symbols, 
and  their  values,  chosen  by  the  Hindus,  Japanese,  Cherokee, 
and  Yei,  with  the  result  that  in  these  symbols  there  is  no  specific 
similarity. 


106.  Time  Reckoning 

Still  another  case  of  primary  parallelism  is  provided  by  the 
Maya- Aztec  system  of  time  denotation  by  coupling  two  series 
of  symbols  in  an  overlapping  system  of  permutations,  as  de¬ 
scribed  below  (§  197).  This  is  as  if  we  denoted  the  successive 
days  of  the  year  1  January,  2  February,  3  March,  and  so  on, 
until,  having  come  to  12  December  we  went  on  13  January, 
14  February,  and  so  once  more  around  until  31  July  was 
reached,  when  the  next  days  would  be  1  August  and  2  Sep¬ 
tember  instead  of  February  1  and  2.  Cumbersome  and  strange 
as  this  system  appears,  an  exact  parallel  to  it  in  principle  was 
devised  by  the  Hellenistic  philosophers  when  they  coupled  the 
twenty-four  hours  of  the  day  with  the  seven  planets  in  a  168- 
hour  cycle  which  gave  the  order  and  names  to  the  days  of  the 


226 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


week  (§  124).  A  third  case  occurs  in  China  where  ten  “  celestial 
stems”  and  twelve  “ terrestrial  branches”  were  permutated  to 
form  a  sixty  year  chronological  cycle.1  All  three  of  these  devices 
are  based  on  the  same  mathematical  principle  and  serve  the 
same  end  of  time  reckoning.  But  their  content  and  result  is 
different.  The  Greeks  combined  24  with  7,  the  Chinese  12  with 
10,  the  Mayas  13  with  20  and  260  with  365;  and  the  periods 
treated  ranged  from  hours  to  years. 

These  cases  of  primary  parallelism  allow  the  inference  that 
there  are  certain  inherent  tendencies  of  the  human  mind  in 
certain  directions,  such  as  operation  in  rebus  reading,  syllabic 
writing,  reckoning  by  least  common  multiples.  Here,  then,  is 
a  seeming  approach  for  a  definite  psychological  interpretation 
of  the  history  of  civilization.  Yet  the  results  of  such  a  method 
of  attack  must  not  be  overestimated.  The  generic  manner  of 
culture  in  these  several  instances  is  indeed  uniform  enough  to 
permit  the  conclusion  that  it  springs  from  a  uniform  impulse 
or  bent  of  the  mind.  But  all  the  particular,  concrete  content 
of  these  cultural  manifestations  is  as  diverse  as  their  historical 
origins  are  separate ;  which  means  that  psychology  may  explain 
what  is  phychological  in  the  cases,  but  that  a  larger  cultural 
constituent  remains  over  before  which  the  generically  valid  prin¬ 
ciples  of  psychology  are  ineffective  as  explanations.  As  in  the 
case  of  the  influence  of  physical  environment  it  might  be  said 
that  psychological  factors  provide  the  limiting  conditions  of 
cultural  phenomena. 

107.  Scale  and  Pitch  of  Pan’s  Pipes 

A  startling  parallelism  has  been  demonstrated  between  the 
Pan’s  pipes  of  the  Solomon  islands  in  Melanesia  and  those  of 
the  northwest  Brazilian  Indians.  The  odd  pipes  differ,  each 
from  the  next,  by  the  interval  of  a  fourth.  The  even  pipes  give 
notes  half-way  in  pitch  between  the  adjacent  odd  ones,  and  thus 
form  another  “ circle  of  fourths.”  But  the  similarity  does  not 
end  here.  The  absolute  pitch  of  the  examined  instruments  from 
Melanesia  and  Brazil  is  the  same.  Thus,  the  vibration  rates  in 
successive  pipes  are  557  and  560.5;  651  and  651;  759  and  749; 

1  12  X  10  =  120  2  (highest  common  factor  of  10  and  12)  =  60. 


PARALLELS 


227 


880  and  879!  This  is  so  close  a  coincidence  as  to  seem  at  first 
sight  beyond  the  bounds  of  accidental  convergence.  The  data 
have  in  fact  been  offered,  and  in  some  quarters  accepted,  as 
evidence  of  a  historical  connection  between  the  western  Pacific 
and  South  America.  Yet  the  connection  would  have  had  to  be 
ancient,  since  no  memory  of  it  remains  nor  is  it  supported  by 
resemblances  in  race,  speech,  nor  anything  obvious  in  culture. 
The  instruments  are  perishable.  Primitive  people,  working  by 
rule  of  thumb,  would  be  unable  to  produce  an  instrument  of 
given  absolute  pitch  except  by  matching  it  against  another,  and 
perhaps  not  then.  Moreover,  it  is  not  known  that  absolute  pitch 
is  of  the  least  concern  to  them.  It  is  therefore  incredible  that 
this  correspondence  rests  on  any  ancient  diffusion:  there  must 
be  an  error  in  the  record  somewhere,  or  the  one  accident  in  a 
million  has  happened  in  the  particular  instruments  examined. 

The  identity  of  scale  or  intervals  however  remains,  and  may 
be  a  true  case  of  parallelism.  Only,  as  usual,  it  boils  down  to 
a  rather  simple  matter.  The  circles  of  fourths  evidently  origi¬ 
nate  in  the  practice,  in  both  regions,  of  overblowing  the  pipes. 
This  produces  over-tones;  of  which  the  second,  the  “ third  partial 
tone,”  is  the  fifth  above  the  octave  of  the  fundamental,  so  that 
successive  notes  in  either  the  odd  or  even  series  of  pipes,  would, 
on  the  octave  being  disallowed,  differ  by  fourths.  The  basis 
of  the  resemblance,  then,  is  a  physical  law  of  sound.  The  cul¬ 
tural  similarity  shrinks  to  the  facts  of  pipes  in  series,  the  use 
of  overblown  tones,  and  the  intercalating  odd-even  series.  Even 
these  resemblances  are  striking,  and  more  specific  than  many 
cited  cases  of  parallelism.  In  fact,  were  they  supported  by 
enough  resemblances  in  other  aspects  of  culture,  they  would  go 
far  to  compel  belief  in  actual  connections  between  Melanesia 
and  Brazil. 


108.  Bronze 

A  striking  case  of  independent  development  is  offered  by  the 
history  of  bronze.  Bronze  is  copper  alloyed  with  five  to  twenty 
per  cent  of  tin.  The  metals  form  a  compound  with  properties 
different  from  those  of  the  two  constituents.  Tin  is  a  soft  metal, 
yet  bronze  is  harder  than  copper,  and  therefore  superior  for 


228 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


tools.  Also,  it  melts  at  a  lower  temperature  and  expands  in 
solidifying  from  the  molten  condition,  and  thus  is  better  mate¬ 
rial  for  castings. 

In  the  eastern  hemisphere  bronze  was  discovered  early  and 
used  widely.  For  nearly  two  thousand  years  it  was  the  metal 
par  excellence  of  the  more  advanced  nations.  A  Bronze  Age, 
beginning  about  4,000  B.C.,  more  or  less  simultaneously  with 
the  first  phonetic  writing,  is  recognized  as  one  of  the  great  divi¬ 
sions  of  cultural  time  (§  66,  225). 

In  the  western  hemisphere  bronze  was  apparently  invented 
later  than  in  the  eastern  and  spread  less  extensively.  It  was 
discovered  in  or  near  the  Bolivian  highland,  which  is  rich  in 
tin  (§  196).  From  there  its  use  diffused  to  the  Peruvian  high¬ 
land,  then  to  the  coast,  then  north  to  about  Ecuador,  and  finally, 
perhaps  by  maritime  contacts,  to  Mexico,  where  local  deposits 
of  tin  were  probably  made  use  of  after  their  value  was  realized. 

Theoretically,  it  might  be  queried  whether  knowledge  of 
bronze  had  possibly  been  carried  to  the  Andes  from  the  eastern 
hemisphere  by  some  now  forgotten  migration  or  culture  trans¬ 
mission.  Against  such  a  supposition  there  stands  out  first  of 
all  the  isolated  and  restricted  distribution  of  the  South  Ameri¬ 
can  bronze  art.  It  is  ten  thousand  miles  by  land  from  the  metal¬ 
working  nations  of  Asia  to  the  middle  Andes.  A  people  or 
culture  wave  that  had  traveled  so  far  could  not  but  have  left 
traces  of  its  course  by  the  way.  The  utilitarian  superiority  of 
bronze  over  stone  tools  is  so  great  that  no  people  that  had  once 
learned  the  art  would  be  likely  to  give  it  up.  Even  if  here  aPd 
there  a  group  of  tribes  had  retrograded,  it  cannot  be  imagined 
that  all  the  nations  between  China  and  Peru  could  have  slipped 
back  so  decisively.  Certainly  peoples  like  the  Mayas  and 
Chibchas,  expert  metallurgists,  would  never  have  abandoned 
bronze-making. 

The  theory  of  a  Chinese  junk  swept  out  of  its  course  and 
washed  on  a  South  American  shore  might  be  invoked.  But  the 
original  South  American  bronze  culture  occupies  an  inland 
mountain  area.  Further,  while  Asiatic  ships  have  repeatedly 
been  wrecked  on  the  Pacific  coast  of  North  America  and  prob¬ 
ably  at  times  also  on  that  of  South  America,  there  is  everything 
to  indicate  that  the  civilizational  effects  of  such  accidents  were 


PARALLELS 


229 


practically  nil.  The  highest  cultures  of  Mexico  and  South 
America  were  evolved  in  interior  mountain  valleys  or  plateaus. 
Not  one  of  the  great  accomplishments  of  the  American  race — 
architecture,  sculpture,  mathematics,  metallurgy — shows  any 
specific  localization  on  the  shore  of  the  Pacific. 

Further,  it  is  hard  to  understand  how  the  arrival  of  a  hand¬ 
ful  of  helpless  strangers  could  initiate  an  enduring  culture 
growth.  It  is  easy  enough  for  us,  looking  backward  through  the 
vista  of  history,  to  fancy  the  lonely  Indians  standing  on  the 
shore  to  welcome  the  strangers  from  the  west,  and  then  going 
with  docility  to  school  to  learn  their  superior  accomplishments. 
Actually,  however,  people  normally  do  not  feel  or  act  in  this 
way.  Nations  are  instinctively  imbued  with  a  feeling  of  supe¬ 
riority.  They  look  down  upon  the  foreigner.  Even  where  they 
admit  his  skill  in  this  matter  or  that,  they  envy  rather  than  ad¬ 
mire  him.  Thus,  there  is  historic  record  of  Oriental  and  Euro¬ 
pean  vessels  being  wrecked  on  the  Pacific  coast  of  North  America, 
during  the  last  century  and  a  half,  among  tribes  that  were  still 
almost  wholly  aboriginal.  In  no  case  did  the  natives  make  any 
attempt  to  absorb  the  higher  culture  of  the  strangers.  Gen¬ 
erally  these  were  enslaved  or  killed,  their  property  rifled ;  some* 
times  the  wreck  was  set  on  fire.  The  greed  for  immediate  gain 
of  the  treasures  in  sight  proved  stronger  than  any  dim  impulses 
toward  self-improvement  by  learning. 

As  one  conservative  author  has  put  it,  occasional  visits  of 
Asiatics  or  Pacific  islanders  to  the  shores  of  America  would  be, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  growth  of  the  vast  mass  of  culture 
in  that  continent,  “mere  incidents.”  From  the  review  given 
below,  in  Chapter  XIII,  it  is  clear  that  the  main  determinants 
of  American  culture  accumulation,  after  the  first  primitive  start, 
were  internal;  and  the  case  seems  as  clear  for  metal  working 
as  for  any  phase. 


109.  Zero 

One  of  the  milestones  of  civilization  is  the  number  symbol 
zero.  This  renders  possible  the  unambiguous  designation  of 
numbers  of  any  size  with  a  small  stock  of  figures.  It  is  the  zero 
that  enables  the  symbol  1  to  have  the  varying  values  of  one,  ten, 


230 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


hundred,  or  thousand.  In  our  arithmetical  notation,  the  symbol 
itself  and  its  position  both  count :  1,234  and  4,321  have  different 
values  although  they  contain  the  identical  symbols.  Such  a 
system  is  impossible  without  a  sign  for  nothingness :  123  and 
1,023  would  be  indistinguishable.  Our  zero,  along  with  the  other 
nine  digits,  appears  to  be  an  invention  of  the  Hindus  approxi¬ 
mately  twelve  or  fifteen  hundred  years  ago.  We  call  the  nota¬ 
tion  “Arabic”  because  it  was  transmitted  from  India  to  Europe 
by  the  Arabs. 


Fig.  28.  Maya  symbols  for  zero:  a ,  monumental;  b,  c ,  cursive. 
(From  Bowditch.) 

Without  a  zero  sign  and  position  values,  two  methods  are  open 
for  the  representation  of  higher  numerical  values.  More  and 
more  signs  can  be  added  for  the  high  values.  This  was  done  by 
the  Greeks  and  Romans.  MV  means  1,005,  and  only  that.  This 
is  simple  enough ;  but  1,888  requires  so  cumbersome  a  denota¬ 
tion  as  MDCCCLXXXVIII— thirteen  figures  of  six  different 
kinds.  A  simple  system  of  multiplying  numbers  expressed  like 
this  one  is  impossible.  The  unwieldiness  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  Romans,  not  having  hit  upon  the  device  of  representing 
nothingness,  employed  the  separate  signs  I,  X,  C,  M  for  the 
quantities  which  we  represent  by  the  single  symbol  1  with  from 
no  to  three  zeroes  added. 

The  other  method  is  that  followed  by  the  Chinese.  Besides 
signs  corresponding  to  our  digits  from  1  to  9,  they  developed 
symbols  corresponding  to  “ten  times,”  “hundred  times,”  and 


PARALLELS 


231 


so  on.  This  was  much  as  if  we  should  use  the  asterisk,  *,  to 
denote  tens,  the  dagger,  f ,  for  hundreds,  the  paragraph,  ft,  for 
thousands.  We  could  then  represent  1,888  by  1  ft  8  f  8  *  8,  and 
1,005  by  1  ft  5,  without  any  risk  of  being  misunderstood.  But 
the  writing  of  the  numbers  would  in  most  cases  require  more 
figures,  and  mathematical  operations  would  be  more  awkward. 

The  only  nation  besides  the  Hindus  to  invent  a  zero  sign  and 
the  representation  of  number  values  by  position  of  the  basic 
symbols,  were  the  Mayas  of  Yucatan.  Some  forms  of  their  zero 
are  shown  in  Figure  28.  This  Maya  development  constitutes  an 
indubitable  parallel  with  the  Hindu  one.  So  far  as  the  involved 
logical  principle  is  concerned,  the  two  inventions  are  identical. 
But  again  the  concrete  expressions  of  the  principle  are  dis¬ 
similar.  The  Maya  zero  does  not  in  the  least  have  the  form  of 
our  or  the  Hindus’  zero.  Also,  the  Maya  notation  was  vigesimal 
where  ours  is  decimal.  They  worked  with  twenty  fundamental 
digits  instead  of  ten.  Their  ‘  ‘  100  ’  ’  therefore  stood  for  400,  their 
“1,000”  for  SjOOO.1  Accordingly,  when  they  wrote,  in  their 
corresponding  digits,  1,234,  the  value  was  not  1,234  but  8,864. 
Obviously  there  can  be  no  question  of  a  common  origin  for  such 
a  system  and  ours.  They  share  an  idea  or  a  method,  nothing 
more.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  these  two  notational  systems,  like 
all  others,  were  preceded  by  numeral  word  counts.  Our  decimal 
word  count  is  based  on  operations  with  the  fingers,  that  of  the 
Maya  on  operations  with  the  fingers  and  toes.  Twenty  became 
their  first  higher  unit  because  twenty  finished  a  person. 

It  is  interesting  that  of  the  two  inventions  of  zero,  the  Maya 
one  was  the  earlier.  The  arithmetical  and  calendrical  system 
of  which  it  formed  part  was  developed  and  in  use  by  the  time 
of  the  birth  of  Christ.  It  may  be  older;  it  certainly  required 
time  to  develop.  The  Hindus  may  have  possessed  the  proto¬ 
types  of  our  numerals  as  early  as  the  second  century  after  Christ, 
but  as  yet  without  the  zero,  which  was  added  during  the  sixth 
or  according  to  some  authorities  not  until  the  ninth  century. 
This  priority  of  the  Maya  must  weaken  the  arguments  some¬ 
times  advanced  that  the  ancient  Americans  derived  their  re¬ 
ligion,  zodiac,  art,  or  writing  from  Asia.  If  the  zero  was  their 
own  product,  why  not  the  remainder  of  their  progress  also  ?  The 

1  Or  360  and  7,200  respectively  in  calendrical  notations. 


232 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


only  recourse  left  the  naive  migrationist  would  be  to  turn  the 
tables  and  explain  Egyptian  and  Babylonian  civilization  as  due 
to  a  Maya  invasion  from  Yucatan. 


110.  Exogamic  Institutions 

In  many  parts  of  the  world  nations  live  under  institutions  by 
which  they  are  divided  into  hereditary  social  units  that  are 
exogamous  to  one  another.  That  is,  all  persons  born  in  a  unit 
must  take  spouses  born  in  some  other  unit,  fellow  members  of 
one’s  unit  being  regarded  as  kinsmen.  The  units  are  generally 
described  as  clans,  gentes,  or  sibs ;  or,  where  there  are  only  two, 
as  moieties.  In  many  cases  the  sibs  or  moieties  are  totemic; 
named  after,  or  in  some  way  associated  with,  an  animal,  plant, 
or  other  distinctive  object  that  serves  as  a  badge  or  symbol  of 
the  group.  Often  the  association  finds  expression  in  magic  or 
myth.  Since  under  this  system  one  is  born  into  his  social  unit, 
cannot  change  it,  and  can  belong  to  one  only,  it  follows  that 
descent  is  unilateral.  It  is  impossible  for  a  man  to  be  a  member 
of  both  his  father ’s  and  his  mother ’s  sib  or  totem ;  custom  has 
established  everywhere  a  rigid  choice  between  them.  Some  tribes 
follow  descent  from  the  mother  or  matrilinear  reckoning,  others 
are  patrilinear.1 

Institutions  of  this  type  have  a  wide  and  irregular  distribu¬ 
tion.  They  are  frequent  in  Australia,  New  Guinea,  and  Mela¬ 
nesia;  found  in  parts  of  the  East  Indies  and  southeastern  Asia; 
quite  rare  or  stunted  in  the  remainder  of  Asia  and  Polynesia  ;- 
fairly  common  in  Africa,  though  they  occur  in  scattered  areas; 
characteristic  again  of  a  large  part  of  North  America,  but  con¬ 
fined  to  a  few  districts  of  South  America.  At  a  rough  guess,  it 
might  be  said  that  about  as  many  savage  peoples,  the  world 

1  This  section  will  not  be  found  confusing  if  it  is  read  with  the  following 
points  clearly  in  mind.  A  tribe  is  a  political  unit,  a  sib  or  clan  or  moiety 
a  social  unit  forming  one  of  several  divisions  of  such  a  political  unit.  A 
tribe  corresponds  in  savage  or  barbarous  life  to  the  state  or  nation  among 
ourselves.  The  sib  is  a  sort  of  enlarged  family.  The  blood  relationship  is 
often  mainly  fictitious,  but  it  is  considered  actual  or  treated  as  such,  and 
is  the  basis  of  the  prohibition  of  marriage  within  the  sib.  The  origin  of 
the  sib  seems  to  have  been  the  family.  The  terms  sib,  clan,  and  gens  are 
here  used  synonymously.  Some  writers  restrict  “clan”  to  sibs  with  descent 
in  the  female  line,  “gens”  to  sibs  with  male  descent.  Sib  is  perhaps  the 
best  general  term,  clan  the  one  most  used. 


PARALLELS 


233 


over,  possess  toteinic-exogamous  clans  or  moieties  as  lack  them. 
The  patchiness  on  the  map  of  exogamic  institutions  argues 
against  their  being  all  the  result  of  a  wave  of  culture  transmis¬ 
sion  emanating  from  a  single  source.  Had  such  a  diffusion  oc¬ 
curred,  it  should  have  left  its  marks  among  the  numerous  inter¬ 
vening  tribes  that  are  sibless.  Further,  both  in  the  eastern  and 


Fig.  29.  Distribution  of  types  of  exogamic  institutions  in  Australia  : 
2M,  two  classes,  matrilinear;  4M,  four  classes,  matrilinear;  4P,  four 
classes,  patrilinear;  8P,  eight  classes,  patrilinear;  black  areas,  no 
classes,  patrilinear  exogamic  totems;  A,  totems  independent  of  classes; 
Y,  totems  replace  sub-classes;  Z,  no  organization ;  f ,  uninhabited  or 
unknown.  (After  Thomas  and  Graebner.) 

western  hemispheres,  the  most  primitive  and  backward  tribes 
are,  with  fair  regularity,  sibless  and  non-totemic.  If  therefore 
a  hypothetical  totem-sib  movement  had  encircled  the  planet,  it 
could  not  have  been  at  an  extremely  ancient  date,  else  the  primi¬ 
tive  tribes  would  have  been  affected  by  it ;  and  since  records  go 
back  five  thousand  years  in  parts  of  the  Mediterranean  area,  the 


234 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


movement,  if  relatively  late,  should  have  left  some  echo  in  his¬ 
tory,  which  it  has  not. 

It  is  therefore  probable  that  totem-sib  institutions  did  not  all 
emanate  from  one  origin,  but  developed  independently  several 
times.  The  question  then  becomes,  how  often,  and  where? 

The  evidence  for  America  has  been  reviewed  in  another  con¬ 
nection  (§185).  It  can  be  summarized  in  the  statement  that 
at  least  two  of  the  three  sib  areas 1  of  North  America,  and 
probably  the  two  principal  ones  of  South  America,  seem  to 
have  resulted  from  a  single  culture  growth  which  perhaps  cen¬ 
tered  at  one  time,  although  subsequently  superseded,  in  the 
middle  sector  of  the  double  continent.  This  movement  may  have 
had  first  a  patrilinear  and  then  a  matrilinear  phase,  though  at 
no  great  interval  of  time.  The  third  North  American  area  may 
have  got  its  patrilinear  sib  institutions  from  the  same  source 
but  probably  developed  its  matrilinear  ones  locally  as  a  subse¬ 
quent  growth.  If  so,  this  would  be  an  instance  of  convergence 
on  the  same  continent — a  rather  rare  phenomenon. 

For  Australia,  New  Guinea,  and  Melanesia,  the  geographical 
proximity  is  so  close  as  to  suggest  a  single  origin  for  the  whole 
area.  Patrilinear  and  matrilinear  descent  are  both  found  in 
Australia  as  well  as  Melanesia.  This  fact  has  been  interpreted 
as  the  result  of  an  earlier  patrilineal  and  a  later  matrilineal 
phase  of  diffusion.  It  is  interesting  that  this  conclusion  parallels 
the  tentative  one  independently  arrived  at  for  America,  although 
in  both  hemispheres  further  analysis  and  distributional  study 
must  precede  a  positive  verdict. 

In  the  principal  other  sib  area,  Africa,  the  reckoning  is  so 
prevailingly  patrilineal,  that  the  few  cases  of  matrilineate  can 
scarcely  be  looked  upon  as  anything  but  secondary  local  modi¬ 
fications.  As  to  whether  the  totemism  and  exogamy  of  Africa 
can  be  genetically  connected  with  those  of  Australia-Melanesia, 
it  is  difficult  to  decide.  The  more  conservative  attitude  would 
be  to  regard  them  as  separate  growths,  although  so  many  cul¬ 
tural  similarities  have  been  noted  between  western  Africa  and 
the  area  that  stretches  from  Indo-China  to  Melanesia,  as  to 

i  Three  out  of  four,  to  be  exact;  but  two  eastern  areas,  which  are  almost 
in  contact  and  perhaps  rather  closely  connected  in  history,  are  for  con¬ 
venience  treated  here  as  if  they  were  one. 


PARALLELS 


235 


have  raised  suspicions  of  an  actual  connection  (§  270).  Yet 
even  if  these  indications  were  to  be  confirmed,  thus  sweeping 
most  or  all  the  Old  World  sib  institutions  into  a  single  civiliza- 
tional  movement,  the  distinctness  of  this  from  the  parallel  de¬ 
velopment  of  the  New  World  would  remain. 

It  is  significant  that  in  the  three  successive  continents  of 
America,  Oceania,  and  Africa  the  patrilinear  and  matrilinear 
phases  of  the  sib  type  of  society  exist  side  by  side,  and  that  the 
same  duality  even  holds  for  each  of  the  separate  areas  in 
America.  That  is,  the  Northwest  American  sib  area  includes 
matrilinear  as  well  as  patrilinear  tribes;  the  Southwest  area 
includes  both ;  and  so  on. 

A  similar  tendency  toward  geographical  association  is  found 
in  other  phases  of  social  structure :  the  clan  and  moiety,  and 
again  totemism  and  exogamy. 

The  clan  or  multiple  form  of  sib  organization  is  logically  dis¬ 
tinct  from  the  moiety  or  dual  form.  Under  the  plural  system, 
a  person,  being  of  clan  A,  may  marry  at  will  into  clans  B,  C, 
D,  E,  F.  Three  of  his  four  grandparents  would  normally  be 
of  other  clans  than  his  own,  but  of  which  they  were  members, 
would  vary  in  each  individual  case.  In  a  patrilineal  society, 
one  member  of  clan  A  Avould  have  his  maternal  uncles  of  clan  B ; 
the  next,  of  clan  C ;  a  third,  perhaps  of  clan  F ;  according  to 
the  choices  which  their  fathers  had  made  of  wives. 

Under  the  dual  system,  however,  a  member  of  moiety  A  may 
just  as  well  be  regarded  as  having  a  wife  of  moiety  B  prescribed 
or  predestined  for  him  as  being  forbidden  an  A  wife.  Two  of 
his  grandparents,  say  his  father’s  father  and  his  mother’s 
mother,  are  inevitably  of  his  own  moiety,  the  two  others  of  the 
opposite  one.  Every  possible  kinsman — his  maternal  uncle,  his 
cross  cousin,  his  father-in-law,  his  wife ’s  brother-in-law,  his 
daughter’s  son — has  his  moiety  affiliation  foreordained.  Where 
descent  is  paternal,  for  instance,  everybody  knows  that  his 
future  mother-in-law  must  be  of  his  own  moiety.  Evidently  the 
effect  of  this  dual  system  on  the  relations  between  kinsfolk,  on 
social  usages,  on  the  individual’s  attitude  of  mind  toward  other 
individuals,  should  normally  tend  to  be  profoundly  different 
from  the  influence  of  a  multiple  clan  system.  On  theoretical 
grounds  it  might  seem  likely  that  the  dual  and  multiple  schemes 


236 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


had  nothing  to  do  with  each  other,  that  they  sprang  from  dis¬ 
tinct  psychological  impulses. 

Yet  such  a  belief  would  be  ungrounded,  as  the  facts  of  dis¬ 
tribution  promptly  make  clear.  In  every  multiple  sib  area  of 
any  moment,  moieties  also  occur,  and  vice  versa.  In  the  Cali¬ 
fornia-Southwest  region,  for  instance,  tribes  like  the  Miwok  are 
divided  into  moieties  only,  the  Mohave  and  Hopi  into  clans  only, 
the  Tewa  and  Cahuilla  into  moieties  subdivided  into  clans.  So 
in  the  Eastern,  the  Plains,  and  the  Northwest  areas  of  North 
America,  clan  tribes  and  moiety  tribes  live  side  by  side ;  whereas 
as  soon  as  these  regions  are  left  behind,  there  are  vast  districts 
— much  of  Mexico,  Texas,  the  Great  Basin  and  Plateau,  north¬ 
ern  Canada  and  the  Arctic  coast' — whose  inhabitants  get  along 
without  either  clans  or  moieties.  So  again  in  Melanesia  and  in 
Australia  (Fig.  29),  the  two  types  of  organization  exist  side  by 
side,  while  most  of  Polynesia,  Asia,  and  Europe  are  void  of 
both.  Only  Africa  shows  some  development  of  multiple  clan 
institutions  but  no  moieties.  In  short,  as  soon  as  areas  of  some 
size  are  considered,  they  prove  in  the  main  to  be  of  two  kinds. 
Either  they  contain  both  clan  tribes  and  moiety  tribes,  or  they 
contain  neither.  That  is,  the  clan  institution  and  the  moiety 
institution  are  correlated  or  associated  in  geography,  as  patri¬ 
linear  and  matrilinear  descent  are  correlated,  which  indicates  a 
community  of  origin  for  them. 

A  similar  relation  exists  between  exogamic  units,  be  they 
moieties  or  clans,  and  totemism.  The  first  constitutes  a  scheme 
of  society,  a  method  of  organization ;  the  second,  a  system  of 
symbolism.  Sibs  are  social  facts,  totems  a  naming  device  with 
magico-religious  implications.  There  is  no  positive  reason  why 
they  should  be  associated.  They  are  not  always  associated. 
There  are  American  tribes  like  'the  Navaho  and  Gros  Ventre  that 
live  under  unilateral  and  exogamic  institutions  without  totems. 
Placenames  or  nicknames  distinguish  the  groups.  In  Australia, 
the  Arunta  possess  unilaterally  reckoning  exogamic  groups  as 
well  as  totems,  but  the  two  are  dissociated;  a  person  takes 
his  group  by  descent,  his  totem  wholly  irrespective  of  this 
according  to  place  of  birth  or  conception.  In  Africa  there  are 
no  less  than  six  tribes  or  series  of  tribes  in  which  exogamy  and 
totemism  are  thus  dissociated ;  a  person  takes  his  totem  from  his 


PARALLELS 


237 


father,  his  exogamic  unit  from  his  mother,  so  that  the  two  ordi¬ 
narily  do  not  coincide  for  parent  and  child.  Exogamy  and 
totemism,  then,  are  theoretically  separate  factors. 

Yet  since  they  are  distinct,  it  is  remarkable  that  in  probably 
seven  or  eight  tenths  of  all  cases  they  coincide,  and  that  in  each 
of  the  continents  or  areas  containing  them  they  are  found  asso¬ 
ciated.  If  exogamy  and  totemism  had  grown  out  of  separate 
roots,  one  could  expect  at  least  one  considerable  area  somewhere 
in  which  one  of  them  appeared  without  the  other.  But  there 
is  no  such  area.  Wherever  social  exogamy  appears  among  a 
larger  group  of  nations,  social  totemism  also  crops  out;  and 
vice  versa. 

It  must  then  be  concluded  that  exogamy  and  totemism,  matri- 
lineate  and  patrilineate,  multiple  and  dual  sibs,  all  show  a  strong 
tendency  toward  association  with  one  another.  In  other  words, 
their  correlation  is  positive  and  strong.  Even  where  they  seem 
mutually  exclusive  in  their  very  nature,  like  matrilinear  and 
patrilinear  reckoning,  ways  have  been  found  by  unconscious 
human  ingenuity  to  make  them  coexist  among  one  people,  as 
when  one  reckoning  is  attached  to  the  exogamy,  the  other  to 
the  totemism;  and  still  more  often  they  occur  among  adjacent 
tribes. 


111.  Parallels  and  Psychology 

Such  associations  as  these  are  common  enough  in  the  history 
of  civilization.  A  number  are  touched  upon  elsewhere  in  this 
volume  under  the  name  of  culture  trait  associations  or  com¬ 
plexes  (§  97,  149).  But  usually  such  a  complex  or  nexus  con¬ 
sists  of  culture  elements  that  have  no  necessary  connection: 
Christianity  and  trousers,  for  instance.  It  is  accident  that  first 
throws  them  together;  association  ties  them  one  to  the  other; 
once  the  cluster  is  established  by  usage,  its  coherence  tends  to 
persist.  But  there  is  something  arbitrary  about  this  cohesion, 
generally.  There  is  no  inherent  reason  why  a  hundred  Ameri¬ 
can  tribes  that  grow  maize  should  also  grow  beans  and  squashes 
and  nothing  else ;  but  they  do  limit  themselves  to  the  three. 
The  distinctive  feature  of  the  sib-complex  is  that  it  has  an  almost 
reasonable  quality.  Its  elements,  however  separate  or  even  op- 


238 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


posite  logically,  do  have  a  certain  psychological  affinity  to  one 
another.  Also,  the  arbitrary  maize-beans-squash  complex  and 
other  complexes  are  generally  not  duplicated.  But  the  intricate 
and  psychologically  founded  totemism-exogamy-descent  complex 
looks  as  if  it  might  have  been  triplicated  or  quadruplicated. 
This  parallelism,  if  the  facts  prove  to  substantiate  it,  is  paral¬ 
lelism  raised  to  a  higher  power  than  any  yet  considered.  Here¬ 
tofore  the  discussion  has  been  of  the  parallelism  of  single  cul¬ 
ture  traits.  Here  it  is  a  case  of  parallelism  of  a  complex  of 
culture  traits.  Such  complex  convergence  might  suggest  some¬ 
thing  peculiar  to  or  inherent  in  the  human  mind,  leading  it, 
once  it  is  stimulated  to  commence  the  development  of  one  of  the 
factors  of  the  complex,  to  follow  with  the  production  of  the  other 
factors.1 

Similar  instances  would  be  the  tendency  of  agriculture  to  be 
followed  by  town  life,  if  it  could  be  demonstrated,  though  this 
seems  doubtful;  of  settled  living  to  be  accompanied  by  migra¬ 
tion  legends ;  of  religions  with  personal  founders  to  become 
propagandizing  and  international  but  in  time  to  die  out  among 
the  nations  in  which  they  were  originated. 

In  regard  to  all  such  cases  it  may  be  said  first  of  all  that  an 
exhaustive  analysis  is  necessary  to  ascertain  whether  the  seem¬ 
ing  association  or  correlation  is  borne  out  by  the  facts.  Second, 
the  possibility  of  diffusion  must  be  eliminated.  If  Melanesian 
and  African  totem-exogamy  are  both  products  of  one  culture 
growth,  they  cannot  be  counted  as  two  examples  of  the  same 
association.  If  they  should  ultimately  both  prove  to  be  linked 
with  the  American  system  by  a  wave  of  migration  or  culture 
contact,  as  has^  indeed  been  maintained  in  two  separate  hy¬ 
potheses  recently  advanced,  parallelism  is  of  course  disproved 
altogether.  But  such  views  are  as  yet  undemonstrated  and  seem 
extreme ;  and  if,  after  continued  search  of  the  evidence,  two  or 
more  such  associations  or  complex  parallels  as  the  exogamic- 
totemic  scheme  of  society  stand  as  independent  growths,  it  is 

i  It  is  perhaps  hardly  necessary  to  remark  that  the  association  here 
found  between  the  various  elements  of  the  exogamic  complex  would  not 
conflict  with  patrilinear  descent  being  on  the  whole  the  earlier  and 
matrilinear  the  later  phase  to  appear  in  each  of  the  independent  develop¬ 
ments  of  the  complex.  Nor  would  it  prevent  each  separate  continental 
development  from  undergoing  its  own  history  of  diffusion,  as  represented 
in  §  185. 


PARALLELS 


239 


evident  that  they  will  be  something  in  the  nature  of  cultural 
manifestations  of  psychological  forces.  In  short,  we  should  then 
be  beginning  to  grasp  specific  psychological  determinants  for  the 
phenomena  or  events  of  civilization.  But  as  yet  such  a  causal 
explanation  of  the  data  of  anthropology  by  the  mechanism  of 
psychology  has  not  been  achieved. 

112.  Limitations  on  the  Principle 

Prom  the  evidences  reviewed  in  this  and  the  last  chapter,  the 
conclusion  is  confirmed  which  social  philosophers  had  long  since 
reached,  that  imitation  is  the  normal  process  by  which  men  live, 
and  that  invention  is  rare,  a  thing  which  societies  and  indi¬ 
viduals  oppose  with  more  resistance  than  they  are  ever  aware 
of,  and  which  probably  occurs  only  as  the  result  of  the  pressure 
of  special  circumstances,  although  these  are  as  yet  little  under¬ 
stood.  Not  only  are  a  hundred  instances  of  diffusion  historically 
traceable  for  every  one  of  parallelism,  but  the  latter  is  regu¬ 
larly  limited  in  scope.  Something  tends  to  make  us  see  phe¬ 
nomena  more  parallel  than  they  actually  are.  They  merely 
spring  from  the  same  impulse,  they  inhere  in  the  properties  of 
objects  or  nature,  they  bear  resemblance  at  one  point  only — 
and  differ  at  all  other  points.  Yet  they  tend  to  impress  us,  in 
some  mysterious  way,  as  almost  identical.  The  history  of  civi¬ 
lization  has  no  more  produced  two  like  cultures,  or  two  sepa¬ 
rately  developed  identical  culture  traits,  than  has  the  evolution 
of  organic  life  ever  duplicated  a  species  by  convergently  modify¬ 
ing  two  distinct  forms.  A  whale  may  look  fishlike,  he  is  a 
mammal.  The  Hindu  and  the  Maya  zero  are  logically  the  same ; 
actually  they  have  in  common  nothing  but  their  abstract  value : 
their  shapes,  their  place  in  their  systems,  are  different.  The 
most  frequent  process  of  culture  history  therefore  is  one  of  tra¬ 
dition  or  diffusion  in  time  and  space,  corresponding  roughly  to 
hereditary  transmission  in  the  field  of  organic  life.  Inventions 
may  be  thought  of  as  similar  to  organic  mutations,  those  ‘‘spon¬ 
taneous”  variations  that  from  time  to  time  arise  and  establish 
themselves.  The  particular  causes  of  both  inventions  and  muta¬ 
tions  remain  as  good  as  unknown.  Now  and  then  a  mutant  or 
an  invention  heads  in  the  same  direction  as  another  previously 


240 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


arisen  one.  But,  since  they  spring  from  different  antecedents, 
such  convergences  never  attain  identity.  They  remain  on  the 
level  of  analogous  resemblance.  Substantial  identity,  a  part  for 
part  correspondence,  is  invariably  a  sign  of  common  origin,  in 
cultural  as  well  as  organic  history. 


CHAPTER  X 


THE  ARCH  AND  THE  WEEK 

113.  House  building  and  architecture.— 114.  The  problem  of  spanning. — 
115.  The  column  and  beam. — 116.  The  corbelled  arch. — 117.  The  true 
arch. — 118.  Babylonian  and  Etruscan  beginnings. — 119.  The  Roman  arch 
and  dome. — 120.  Mediaeval  cathedrals. — 121.  The  Arabs:  India:  modern 
architecture. — 122.  The  week:  holy  numbers. — 123.  Babylonian  discovery 
of  the  planets. — 124.  Greek  and  Egyptian  contributions:  the  astrological 
combination. — 125.  The  names  of  the  days  and  th«  Sabbath. — 126.  The 
week  in  Christianity,  Islam,  and  eastern  Asia. — 127.  Summary  of  the  dif¬ 
fusion. — 128.  Month-thirds  and  market  weeks. — 129.  Leap  days  as 
parallels. 

In  exemplification  of  the  principles  discussed  in  the  last  two 
chapters,  the  next  two  are  given  over  to  a  more  detailed  consid¬ 
eration  of  several  typical  ramifying  growths  whose  history  hap¬ 
pens  to  be  known  with  satisfactory  fullness.  These  are  the  arch, 
the  week,  and  the  alphabet. 


113.  House  Building  and  Architecture 

The  history  of  human  building  makes  a  first  impression  of 
an  endless  tangle.  Every  people  rears  some  sort  of  habitations, 
and  however  rude  these  are,  structural  principles  are  involved. 
Obviously,  too,  geography  and  climate  are  bound  to  have  at  least 
a  delimiting  influence.  The  Eskimo  of  the  Arctic  cannot  build 
houses  of  wood ;  the  inhabitants  of  a  coral  reef  in  the  Pacific 
could  not,  however  much  they  might  wish,  develop  a  style  in 
brick.  In  structures  not  used  as  dwellings,  their  purpose  neces¬ 
sarily  affects  their  form.  A  temple  is  likely  to  be  made  on  a 
different  plan  from  a  court  of  law.  Temples  themselves  may 
vary  according  to  the  motives  and  rituals  of  the  religions  which 
they  serve. 

Bewilderment  begins  to  abate  as  soon  as  one  ceases  trying  to 
contemplate  all  buildings  reared  by  human  hands.  Obviously 
a  dwelling  erected  by  a  small  family  group  for  the  utilitarian 

purpose  of  shelter  is  likely  to  be  more  subject  to  immediate 

241 


242 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


adaptations  to  climate  than  a  large  communal  structure  serving 
some  purpose  such  as  the  service  of  a  deity.  If  consideration 
be  restricted  still  further,  to  religious  or  public  buildings  set  up 
with  the  idea  of  permanence,  another  class  of  causes  making  for 
variability  begins  to  be  eliminated.  A  structure  intended  as  an 
enduring  monument  is  reared  with  consideration  to  the  impres¬ 
sion  that  it  will  create  in  the  minds  of  future  generations.  Its 
emotional  potentialities,  be  these  evoked  by  its  mere  size,  by  the 
aesthetic  nature  of  its  design,  or  by  a  combination  of  the  two, 
come  into  the  forefront.  Such  permanent  buildings  being  in 
stone  or  brick,  techniques  which  flourish  in  wood  or  other  tem¬ 
porary  materials  are  eliminated.  Finally,  a  monumental  struc¬ 
ture  is  possible  only  at  the  hands  of  a  community  of  some  size. 
An  unstable  group  of  nomads,  a  thinly  scattered  agricultural 
population,  cannot  assemble  in  sufficient  numbers  even  for  pe¬ 
riods  each  year,  to  carry  out  the  long-continued  labors  that  are 
necessary.  The  aggregation  of  numbers  of  men  in  one  spot  is 
always  accompanied  by  specialization  in  advancement  of  the 
arts.  Consequently  the  very  fact  that  a  structure  is  monu¬ 
mental  involves  the  probability  that  its  builders  are  able  to  rise 
above  the  limitations  of  mere  necessity,  and  can  in  some  degree 
execute  products  of  their  imagination. 

114.  The  Problem  of  Spanning 

If  now  our  attention  be  confined  to  large  buildings  of  the 
more  massive  and  permanent  sort,  it  becomes  clear  that  one  of 
the  chief  problems  which  all  their  constructors  have  had  to 
grapple  with,  is  that  of  roofing  large  spaces  and  spanning  wide 
openings  in  walls.  A  pyramid  can  be  heaped  up,  or  a  wall 
reared  to  a  great  height,  without  much  other  than  quantitative 
difficulties  being  encountered.  A  four  hundred  foot  pyramid 
does  not  differ  in  principle  from  the  waist-high  one  that  a  child 
might  pile  up.  The  problems  which  it  involves  are  essentially 
the  economic  and  political  ones  of  providing  and  controlling 
the  needed  multitudes  of  workers.  Architecture  as  such  is  in 
abeyance  and  the  engineering  problems  involved  are  mainly 
those  of  transporting  and  raising  large  blocks  of  stone.  Much 
the  same  holds  of  walls.  The  Incas,  for  instance,  reared 


THE  ARCH  AND  THE  WEEK 


243 


masonry  of  astounding  massiveness  and  exactness  without  ever 
seriously  attempting  to  solve  architectural  problems. 

Once,  however,  a  structure  is  planned  to  cover  a  wide  space, 
it  becomes  architecturally  ambitious.  The  roof  of  a  large 
dwelling  can  be  made  easily  of  poles  and  thatch  by  such  col¬ 
laborators  as  a  family  might  muster.  But  to  span  a  clear  space 
of  some  size  in  stone  requires  more  than  numbers  of  workers. 
The  accomplishment  also  yields  definite  sense  of  achievement 
which  is  strong  in  proportion  as  the  extent  of  the  ceiling  is 
great.  The  difficulties  are  diminished  in  proportion  as  the  mass 
of  the  structure  is  large  and  the  clear  space  is  small,  but  the 
satisfying  effect  is  correspondingly  decreased.  A  vault  whose 
walls  are  thicker  than  its  interior  is  wide,  produces  as  chief 
impression  an  effect  of  massiveness.  One  feels  the  solidity  of 
the  structure,  the  amount  of  labor  that  has  gone  into  it;  but 
one  is  left  without  the  sense  of  a  worth-while  difficulty  having 
been  self-imposed  and  mastered.  Sooner  or  later,  therefore, 
after  men  began  to  hold  themselves  available  for  co-operative 
enterprises  in  numbers,  adventurous  minds  must  have  been 
fired  with  a  desire  to  grapple  with  problems  of  aesthetic  con¬ 
struction,  and  to  leave  behind  them  monuments  of  triumphant 
solution.  The  story  of  these  voluntary  and  imaginative  en¬ 
deavors  is  the  history  of  monumental  art. 

Two  principal  methods  have  been  followed  in  the  solution  of 
the  problem  of  covering  large  free  spaces.  The  first  is  the 
method  of  the  column  and  the  lintel ;  the  second  that  of  the  arch 
or  vault.  The  column  and  lintel  do  not  differ  fundamentally 
from  the  idea  of  the  wall  with  superimposed  roof  beams.  The 
elements  of  both  are  vertical  support  and  horizontal  beam.  In 
the  arch,  however,  this  simple  scheme  is  departed  from,  and  the 
covering  elements  take  on  a  curved  or  sloping  form.  The  ap¬ 
parently  free  float  of  the  span  is  stimulatingly  impressive,  espe¬ 
cially  when  executed  in  a  heavy  and  thoroughly  rigid  material. 
The  beam  is  subject  to  bending  stress.  Timber  makes  a  good 
material  because  of  its  strength  against  breakage  by  bending. 
Stone  is  unreliable  or  outrightly  weak  against  a  bending  stress, 
besides  adding  to  the  stress  by  its  own  weight.  There  are  there¬ 
fore  inherent  limitations  on  the  space  that  can  be  covered  by 
a  horizontal  stone  beam. 


244 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


115.  The  Column  and  Beam 

Most  early  architecture  developed  the  column.  Even  so  su¬ 
perb  an  architecture  as  that  of  the  Greeks  never  rose  above  it. 
The  aesthetic  value  of  the  Parthenon  lies  in  the  balance  and 
feeling  with  which  a  fundamentally  simple  plan  has  been  elabo¬ 
rated,  not  in  the  daring  way  in  which  an  inherently  ambitious 
problem  has  been  met. 

On  account  of  its  essential  simplicity,  columnar  architecture 
grew  up  among  several  historically  unconnected  nations.  In  the 
case  of  most  of  them,  there  can  be  distinguished  an  early  stage 
of  building  in  wood,  when  the  column  was  the  trunk  of  a  tree, 
and  a  later  stage  in  which  the  post  was  replaced  by  a  monolith, 
or  by  superimposed  drums  of  stone.  This  change  appears  to 
have  taken  place  somewhat  independently  in  Egypt  and  in 
Greece,  and  wholly  so  in  Mexico.  It  has  been  thought  that  Greek 
architecture  was  derived  from  Egypt,  but  there  was  probably 
little  more  than  a  transmission  of  stimulus,  since  Greek  temples 
were  wooden  pillared  several  thousand  years  after  the  Egyptians 
were  rearing  huge  stone  columns.  Furthermore,  if  the  Greeks 
had  borrowed  their  column  outright  from  Egypt,  they  would 
probably  have  copied  it  slavishly  at  the  outset.  Yet  their  early 
capitals  are  without  the  lotus  flower  head  in  which  the  Egyptian 
column  terminated.  Here,  then,  and  still  more  in  Mexico,  there 
was  parallel  development. 

The  failure  of  the  Greeks  to  pass  beyond  column  and  lintel 
architecture  may  seem  strange  for  a  people  that  showed  so  un¬ 
usual  an  artistic  faculty  and  so  bold  and  enterprising  a  spirit 
as  they  manifested  in  most  departments  of  civilization.  The 
cause  appears  to  lie  not  in  any  internal  arrest  of  their  artistic 
evolution,  but  in  the  conditions  that  prevailed  in  another  field 
of  their  culture :  their  political  particularity.  The  Greek  state 
remained  a  city.  All  attempts  to  establish  larger  political  aggre¬ 
gates,  whether  on  the  basis  of  confederation  or  conquest,  failed 
miserably  and  speedily.  The  Greek  was  ingrainedly  addicted 
to  an  outlook  that  was  not  merely  provincial  but  literally 
municipal.  The  result  was  that  really  large  cooperative  enter¬ 
prises  were  beyond  him.  Paved  roads,  aqueducts,  sewers,  and 
works  of  a  like  character  were  scarcely  attempted  on  any  scale 


THE  ARCH  AND  THE  WEEK 


245 


of  magnitude.  With  the  rather  small  numbers  of  individuals 
which  at  best  the  Greeks  assembled  in  one  spot,  such  works  were 
not  necessary,  and  undertaken  in  mere  ambition,  they  would 
have  encountered  public  antagonism.  Consequently  Greek  pub¬ 
lic  buildings  were,  by  the  standards  of  many  other  nations, 
mediocre  in  size  of  ground  plan,  low  in  height,  without  endeavor 
to  impress  by  sweep  of  clear  space.  This  fact  illustrates  the 
almost  organic  interconnection  existing  between  the  several  sides 
of  the  culture  of  any  people;  it  illustrates  also  the  impor¬ 
tance  of  knowing  the  whole  of  a  civilization  before  trying  to 
provide  an  explanation  for  any  one  of  its  manifestations. 

116.  The  Corbelled  Arch 

The  arch  brings  in  an  inherently  new  principle  of  architec¬ 
ture.  It  is  a  device  for  carrying  construction  over  an  empty 
space  without  horizontal  beams.  But  it  may  take  two  principal 
forms:  the  corbelled  or  “false”  arch,  and  the  “true”  arch. 
Both  are  arches  in  form,  but  the  blocks  that  form  the  curvature 
of  one  are  not  self-supporting;  in  the  other  they  are. 

The  corbelled  arch  achieves  its  span  through  a  successive  pro¬ 
jection  of  the  stones  or  bricks  that  abut  on  each  side  of  the  open 
space.  The  stone  at  the  end  of  the  second  course  of  masonry 
extends  part  of  its  length  beyond  the  end  stone  of  the  first 
course.  At  the  opposite  side,  the  second  course  hangs  similarly 
out  above  the  first.  In  the  third  course,  the  end  blocks  again 
project  beyond  those  of  the  second.  The  arrangement  thus  is 
that  of  two  series  of  brackets,  or  two  staircases  turned  upside 
down.  The  higher  the  masonry  rises,  the  more  do  the  clear 
space  narrow  and  the  two  lines  of  hanging  steps  approach  until 
they  meet  and  the  arch  is  complete.  What  keeps  the  projecting 
stones  from  toppling  into  the  clear  space?  Nothing,  obviously, 
but  such  weight  as  is  put  on  their  inner  or  embedded  ends. 
Suppose  a  stone  projects  a  third  of  its  length  beyond  the  one 
below,  so  that  its  center  of  gravity  is  still  above  the  lower  stone. 
It  will  then  lie  as  placed.  Suppose  still  another  stone  again 
projects  a  third  of  its  length  beyond  the  second.  Its  center  of 
gravity  now  falling  outside  the  lowest  block,  it  will  topple  both 
itself  and  the  second  one.  Only  if  other  blocks  are  inserted 


246 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


behind  will  their  counterweight  hold  up  the  projecting  blocks. 
Obviously,  there  will  be  more  such  counterweights  needed  the 
higher  the  side  of  the  arch  rises.  In  general,  the  area  of  wall 
needed  as  counterweight  is  at  least  as  great  as  the  area  of  over¬ 
hanging.  If  the  arch  is  to  clear  ten  feet  horizontally — hanging 
over  five  feet  from  each  side — there  must  be  five  feet  or  more 
of  masonry  built  up  on  each  side  of  the  clear  space.  A  cor¬ 
belled  arch  forming  a  relatively  small  doorway  in  the  face  of 
a  wall  presents  no  difficulty,  but  a  corbelled  arch  that  stands 
free  is  impossible. 

The  same  principle  holds  for  the  vault,  which  is  a  three- 
dimensional  extension  of  the  virtually  two-dimensional  arch. 
The  hollow  or  half-barrel  of  the  corbelled  vault  has  to  be  flanked 
by  a  volume  of  building  material  exceeding  its  own  content. 
This  need  eliminates  corbelling  as  a  possible  method  of  rearing 
structures  that  rise  free  and  with  lightness.  Hence  the  clumsy 
massiveness  of,  for  instance,  Maya  architecture,  which,  so  far 
as  it  employs  the  vault,  often  contains  more  building  material 
than  spanned  space. 

Another  difficulty,  beyond  that  of  counterweighting,  which 
besets  the  user  of  the  corbelled  arch,  is  that  the  projecting  stones 
of  each  course  are  subjected  to  the  same  bending  strain  as  a 
beam.  The  weight  above  strives  to  snap  them  in  two. 

The  corbelled  arch  and  vault  have  been  independently  devised 
and  have  also  diffused.  They  were  employed  in  gigantic  Bronze 
age  tombs  at  Mycenae  in  Greece — the  so-called  treasure  house  of 
Atreus, — in  Portugal,  and  in  Ireland  (Fig.  41).  These  develop¬ 
ments  seem  historically  connected.  On  the  other  hand  the  Mayas 
of  Yucatan  also  built  corbelled  arches,  which  must  constitute  a 
separate  invention.  This  parallel  development  differs  from  that 
of  the  true  arch,  which  seems  everywhere  to  be  derived  from  a 
single  original  source. 

117.  The  True  Arch 

The  true  arch  differs  from  the  corbelled  in  needing  no  coun¬ 
terweight.  The  blocks  that  form  the  under  surface  or  soffit  of 
its  span  are  self-sustaining.  The  true  arch  thus  yields  an 
aesthetic  satisfaction  which  can  be  attained  in  no  other  way, 


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especially  when  it  soars  in  magnitude.  The  fundamental  prin¬ 
ciple  of  the  true  arch  is  the  integration  of  its  elements.  Such 
an  arch  is  nothing  until  completed;  but  from  that  moment  its 
constituents  fuse  their  strength.  Each  block  has  a  shape  which 
is  predetermined  by  the  design  of  the  whole,  and  each  is  use¬ 
less,  in  fact,  not  even  self-supporting,  until  all  the  others  have 
been  fitted  with  it.  Hence  the  figure  of  speech  as  well  as  the 
reality  of  the  keystone :  the  last  block  slipped  into  place,  locking 
itself  and  all  the  others.  The  features  of  the  blocks  or  “vous- 
soirs”  which  makes  possible  this  integration,  is  the  taper  of 
their  sides.  Each  is  a  gently  sloping  piece  of  wedge  instead 
of  a  rectangular  block.  When  bricks  replace  dressed  stone,  the 
mortar  takes  the  place  of  this  shaping,  being  thinner  toward  the 
inner  face  of  the  vault  and  thicker  toward  the  interior  of  the 
construction. 

A  true  arch  in  process  of  erection  would  instantly  collapse  if 
not  held  up.  It  can  be  built  only  over  a  scaffold  or  “ centering.” 
Once  however  the  keystone  has  wedged  its  parts  together,  it  not 
only  stands  by  itself  but  will  support  an  enormous  weight.  The 
greater  the  pressure  from  above,  the  more  tightly  are  the  blocks 
forced  together.  Instability  in  a  true  arch  is  not  due  to  the 
bending  stress  coming  from  the  superimposed  mass,  as  in  the 
corbelled  arch  or  a  horizontal  roofing.  The  blocks  are  subjected 
only  to  crushing  pressure,  which  stone  and  brick  are  specially 
adapted  to  withstand.  The  weakness  of  the  arch  is  that  it  turns 
vertical  into  horizontal  thrust.  With  more  weight  piled  on  top, 
the  sidewise  thrust,  the  inclination  to  spread  apart,  becomes 
greater,  and  must  be  resisted  by  buttressing.  This  is  what  the 
Hindus  mean  when  they  say  that  “the  arch  never  sleeps.” 

118.  Babylonian  and  Etruscan  Beginnings 

While  the  exact  circumstances  attending  the  invention  of  the 
true  arch  are  not  clear,  the  earliest  specimens  preserved  are  from 
the  ancient  brick-building  peoples  of  Babylonia,  especially  at 
Nippur  about  3,000  B.C.  Thence  the  principle  of  the  arch  was 
carried  to  adjacent  Assyria.  Both  these  Mesopotamian  peoples 
employed  the  arch  chiefly  on  a  small  scale  in  roofing  doors  and 
in  tunnels.  It  remained  humble  and  utilitarian  in  their  hands ; 


248 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


its  architectural  possibilities  were  scarcely  conceived.  They 
continued  to  rear  their  monumental  structures  mainly  with  an 
eye  to  quantity:  high  and  thick  walls,  ramps,  towers  ascending 
vertically  or  by  steps,  prevailed. 

The  true  arch  and  vault  are  next  found  in  Italy,  among  a 
prosperous  city-dwelling  people,  the  Etruscans,  some  seven  or 
more  centuries  before  Christ.  All  through  the  civilization  of 
this  nation  runs  a  trait  of  successful  but  never  really  distinctive 
accomplishment.  The  Etruscans  were  receptive  to  new  ideas  and 
applied  them  with  energy,  usually  only  to  degenerate  them  in 
the  end.  Whether  they  discovered  the  arch  for  themselves  or 
whether  knowledge  of  it  was  carried  to  Italy  from  Asia  is  not 
wholly  clear,  since  history  knows  little  about  the  Etruscans,  and 
archaeology,  though  yielding  numerous  remains,  leaves  the  prob¬ 
lem  of  their  origin  dark.  The  Etruscans,  or  Tyrrhenians  as  the 
Greeks  knew  them,  were  however  active  traders,  and  a  number 
of  features  in  their  civilization,  such  as  liver  divination  (§  97), 
as  well  as  ancient  tradition,  connect  them  with  Asia.  It  is 
therefore  probable  that  the  principle  of  arch  construction  was 
transmitted  to  them  from  its  earlier  Babylonian  source.  The 
Etruscans  also  failed  to  carry  the  use  of  the  arch  far  into  monu¬ 
mental  architecture.  They  employed  it  in  tombs,  gates,  and 
drains  rather  than  as  a  conspicuous  feature  of  public  buildings. 

119.  The  Roman  Arch  and  Dome 

From  the  Etruscans  their  neighbors,  the  Romans,  learned  the 
arch.  They  too  adopted  it  at  first  for  utilitarian  purposes.  The 
great  sewer  of  Rome,  for  instance,  the  Cloaca  Maxima,  is  an 
arched  vault  of  brick.  Gradually,  however,  as  the  Romans  grew 
in  numbers  and  wealth  and  acquired  a  taste  for  public  under¬ 
takings,  they  transferred  the  construction  to  stone  and  intro¬ 
duced  it  into  their  buildings.  By  the  time  their  polity  changed 
from  the  republican  to  the  imperial  form,  the  arch  was  the  most 
characteristic  feature  of  their  architecture.  The  Greeks  had 
built  porticos  of  columns ;  the  Romans  erected  frontages  of  rows 
of  arches.  The  exterior  of  their  circus,  the  Coliseum,  is  a  series 
of  stories  of  arches.  Much  of  the  mass  of  the  structure  also  rests 
upon  arches,  thus  making  possible  the  building  of  the  huge  edi- 


THE  ARCH  AND  THE  WEEK 


249 


fice  with  a  minimum  of  material.  On  the  practical  side,  this  is 
one  of  the  chief  values  of  the  arch.  The  skill  which  evolved  it 
eliminates  a  large  percentage  of  brute  labor.  Earlier  peoples 
would  have  felt  it  necessary  to  fill  the  space  between  the  interior 
tiers  of  seats  and  the  outer  wall  of  the  Coliseum. 

Once  the  fever  of  architecture  had  infected  them,  the  Romans 
went  beyond  the  simple  arch  and  vault.  They  invented  the 
dome.  As  the  simplest  arch,  such  as  a  doorway  or  window,  a 
perforation  in  a  wall,  is  essentially  two  dimensional,  and  a 
vault  is  the  projecting  of  this  plane  area  into  the  three  dimen¬ 
sions  of  a  half  cylinder,  so  the  dome  can  be  conceived  as  the 
extension  of  the  arch  into  another  three-dimensional  form,  the 
half  sphere.  Their  relations  are  those  of  a  hoop,  a  barrel,  and 
a  hollow  ball.  Imagine  a  vault  revolved  on  a  central  vertical 
pivot,  and  it  will  describe  the  surface  of  a  dome.  Two  inter¬ 
secting  arches  can  be  served  by  a  single  keystone.  Theoretically, 
more  and  more  arches  can  be  introduced  to  intersect  at  the  same 
point,  until  they  form  a  continuous  spheroid  surface.  Neither 
construction  nor  the  evolution  of  the  dome  did  actually  take 
place  by  this  method  of  compounding  arches,  which  however 
serves  to  illustrate  .the  logical  relation  of  the  two  structures. 

The  Roman  engineers  put  domes  on  their  Pantheon,  the  tomb 
of  Hadrian,  and  other  buildings.  In  the  centuries  in  which  the 
Mediterranean  countries  were  Romanized,  the  dome  and  the 
arch,  the  vault  and  the  row  of  arches  set  on  pillars,  became 
familiar  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  civilized  western  world. 
After  Roman  power  crumbled,  the  architectural  traditions  sur¬ 
vived.  Even  when  there  was  decadence  of  execution  and  little 
monumental  construction,  the  principles  once  gained  were  never 
lost. 


120.  Mediaeval  Cathedrals 

With  the  emergence  from  the  Dark  to  the  Middle  Ages,  archi¬ 
tecture  revived  with  an  application  to  churches  instead  of  tem¬ 
ples,  circuses,  and  baths.  In  southern  Europe  adherence  to  the 
old  Roman  model  remained  close,  and  the  style  is  known  as 
Romanesque.  In  northern  Europe  the  Roman  principles  found 
themselves  on  newer  soil,  tradition  bound  less  rigorously,  and 
the  style  underwent  more  modification.  The  arch  became 


250 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


pointed  at  the  top.  Vertical  building  lines  were  elongated  at 
the  expense  of  horizontal  ones,  which  in  the  lower  and  less  bril¬ 
liant  sun  of  the  north  are  less  effective  in  catching  light  and 
shade  and  giving  plastic  effect  than  on  the  Mediterranean.  The 
dominant  effect  became  one  of  aspiration  toward  height.  This 
is  the  so-called  Gothic  architecture,  developed  from  the  twelfth 
century  on,  most  notably  in  northern  France,  with  much  origi¬ 
nality  also  in  England,  and  undergoing  provincial  modification 
in  the  various  north  European  countries.  In  fact,  the  style  was 
finally  carried  back  into  Italy,  to  compete  there  with  the  Ro¬ 
manesque  order,  as  in  the  famous  cathedral  of  Milan. 

As  an  artistic  design  a  Gothic  cathedral  is  as  different  from 
an  imperial  Roman  building  as  the  latter  from  a  Greek  temple. 
Yet  it  represents  nothing  but  a  surface  modification  of  Roman 
methods.  Its  essential  engineering  problems  had  been  solved 
more  than  a  thousand  years  earlier.  The  effect  of  a  hemi¬ 
spherical  arch  associated  with  low  round  columns,  and  of  a  high 
pointed  one  soaring  from  tall  clusters  of  buttresses,  is  as  diverse 
as  can  be  obtained  in  architecture.  But  so  far  as  plan  or  inven¬ 
tion  are  concerned,  there  is  no  decisive  distinction  between  the 
two  orders. 

121.  The  Arabs:  India:  Modern  Architecture 

In  the  east,  Roman  architectural  tradition  was  sustained  with¬ 
out  rupture  and  even  carried  forward  in  the  Byzantine  empire. 
The  great  church  of  St.  Sophia  at  Constantinople  is  a  sixth  cen¬ 
tury  example  of  a  splendid  dome  set  on  four  great  arches  and 
intersecting  with  smaller  domes  at  its  corners.  From  the  Byzan¬ 
tine  Greeks — or  Romans  as  they  long  continued  to  call  them¬ 
selves — and  perhaps  from  the  neighboring  Sassanian  Persians, 
the  principle  of  arch  and  dome  came  to  the  Arabs  when  these 
underwent  their  sudden  expansion  after  the  death  of  Mohammed. 
In  nearly  all  the  countries  overrun  by  the  Arabs,  Mesopotamia, 
Syria,  Egypt,  North  Africa,  Sicily,  and  Spain,  they  encountered 
innumerable  old  public  buildings  or  ruins.  It  was  not  long 
before  they  were  emulating  these.  During  the  centuries  super¬ 
ficial  fashion  does  not  stand  still  in  architecture  any  more  than 
in  dress.  The  trousers  of  1850  would  seem  out  of  place  if  worn 


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251 


in  1920,  and  yet  the  two  garments  are  identical  in  basic  plan. 
So  with  Roman  and  Arab  or  Saracenic  architecture.  The  Arab 
sometimes  twisted  his  columns  and  bulged  his  arch  to  horseshoe 
shape.  He  added  no  essential  element. 

Among  the  countries  in  which  the  Arabs  built  is  Spain. 
Hence  their  architecture,  in  the  form  known  as  Moorish,  in¬ 
fluenced  that  of  the  Spaniards.  They  in  turn  carried  the  style 
to  Mexico ;  from  there  it  was  transported  to  New  Mexico  and 
California,  where  converted  Indians  made  and  laid  the  adobe 
bricks  of  their  mission  churches  according  to  the  plans  of  the 
padres.  Since  the  American  occupation,  the  buildings  and  ruins 
of  the  Spanish  period  have  stood  out  as  landmarks,  fired  the 
imagination  of  visitors,  and  set  the  model  for  a  type  of  archi¬ 
tecture.  Railroad  stations  and  the  like  are  now  done  in  “Mis¬ 
sion”  style,  which  in  essentials  is  nothing  but  Spanish  Moorish 
architecture,  as  this  again  is  only  the  Arab  modification  of  the 
Roman  original. 

Along  with  Mohammedanism,  the  Roman-Saracenic  architec¬ 
ture  spread  eastward  also  to  India.  In  the  sixteenth  century 
Mohammedan  conquerors  of  Mongol  origin,  known  therefore  as 
the  Moguls,  carved  out  a  great  empire  in  northern  India.  Pros¬ 
perity  resulted  for  several  generations,  and  its  memory  was 
embellished  by  the  erection  of  notable  buildings.  Perhaps  the 
most  famous  of  these  is  the  tomb  near  Agra  known  as  the  Taj 
Mahal.  Set  in  its  sunlit  environment,  built  of  white  marble, 
and  its  surface  a  maze  of  inlay  in  polished  stone,  this  structure 
seems  utterly  unrelated  to  the  grim,  narrow,  upward-stretching 
cathedrals  of  northern  Europe  with  stained  glass  filling  the 
spaces  between  their  buttresses.  Yet  the  central  feature  of  the 
Taj  Mahal  is  a  great  dome  done  on  the  identical  plan  as  that 
of  St.  Sophia  or  the  Pantheon  and  derived  from  them.  What 
then  one  is  wont  to  regard  as  the  triumph  of  Indian  architecture 
is  not  Indian  at  all ;  no  more  than  Gothic  architecture  had  any 
connection  with  the  Goths.  The  one  is  Mohammedan,  the  other 
French.  Both  represent  little  else  than  the  working  out  in  new 
countries  and  in  later  centuries  of  an  invention  which  the  Ro¬ 
mans  had  borrowed  from  the  Etruscans  and  they  from  the 
Babylonians.  The  device  diffused  from  Asia  into  Europe  and 
Africa  and  returned  after  several  thousand  years,  to  flourish 


252 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


once  more  near  its  source  of  origin,  enormously  modified 
sesthetically  and  enriched  with  infinite  refinement,  but  still 
without  radical  change. 

It  is  an  interesting  commentary  on  the  sluggishness  of  inven¬ 
tion  that  whereas  we  to-day  build  in  concrete  and  steel  as  well 
as  in  wood  and  brick  and  stone,  and  erect  buildings  of  greater 
size  as  well  as  for  a  larger  variety  of  purposes  than  ever  before 
in  history,  yet  we  have  so  far  been  unable  to  add  any  new  type 
of  aesthetic  design.  Our  public  buildings,  those  intended  to  serve 
as  monuments  and  therefore  summoning  the  utmost  abilities  of 
the  architect,  still  make  use  of  the  arch,  vault,  and  dome,  or 
fall  back  frankly  on  modifications  of  the  Greek  temple  with  its 
rows  of  columns.  So  far  as  the  outside  appearance  of  modern 
buildings  goes,  all  our  fine  architecture  is  essentially  a  burrow¬ 
ing  in  the  past  to  recombine  in  slightly  new  proportions,  and 
for  new  uses,  elements  taken  from  the  most  diverse  countries 
and  ages,  but  forming  part  of  only  two  lines  of  development. 
It  may  be,  when  we  have  built  much  longer  in  steel  and  con¬ 
crete,  and  perhaps  still  newer  materials,  that  the  inherent  prop¬ 
erties  of  these  may  gradually  force  on  a  future  generation  of 
architects  and  engineers  possibilities  which  indeed  are  now  lying 
before  us,  but  to  which  the  resistance  of  the  human  mind  to 
novelty  blinds  us. 

122.  The  Week:  Holy  Numbers 

The  history  of  the  week  is  also  a  meandering  one.  Its  origins 
go  back  to  a  number  cult.  Many  nations  have  a  habit  of  looking 
upon  some  one  number  as  specially  lucky,  desirable,  holy,  or 
perhaps  unfortunate ;  at  any  rate  endowed  with  peculiar  virtue 
or  power.  Three  and  seven  at  once  rise  to  mind,  with  thirteen 
as  unfortunate.  But  the  particular  numbers  considered  mystic 
are  very  diverse.  Few  American  Indian  tribes,  for  instance, 
had  any  feeling  about  seven,1  and  still  fewer  about  three.  The 

i  It  seems  quite  doubtful  whether  any  American  people  held  seven  as  a 
mystic  number  in  pre-Columbian  times.  The  case  most  frequently  cited  is 
that  of  the  Zuni.  But  these  people  had  a  Christian  mission  in  their  town 
for  two  centuries;  they  still  employ  four  and  six  far  more  frequently  than 
seven  in  their  rituals;  and  their  unmissionized  neighbors  the  Hopi  and 
Navaho  esteem  four  or  six  but  not  seven.  The  other  Indiana  stressing 


THE  ARCH  AND  THE  WEEK 


253 


latter,  in  fact,  would  have  seemed  to  almost  all  of  them  imper¬ 
fect  and  insignificant.  Nearly  all  the  Americans  who  were  con¬ 
scious  of  any  preferential  custom  exalted  four ;  and  the  remain¬ 
ing  tribes,  those  of  the  North  Pacific  Coast,  were  addicted  to 
five.  The  Africans  were  without  any  feeling  for  seven,  except 
where  they  had  come  under  Islamic  or  other  foreign  influences. 
The  Australians  and  Pacific  islanders  also  have  not  concerned 
themselves  with  seven,  and  the  same  seems  to  be  true  of  those 
remoter  peoples  of  northern  Asia  which  remained  until  recently 
beyond  the  range  of  the  irradiation  of  higher  civilization. 

This  reduces  the  area  in  which  seven  is  thought  to  have  sacred 
power  to  a  single  continuous  tract  comprising  Europe,  the  cul¬ 
turally  advanced  portions  of  Asia  and  the  East  Indies,  and  such 
parts  of  Africa  as  have  come  under  Eur-Asiatic  influence.  It 
is  significant  that  seven  was  devoid  of  special  significance  in 
ancient  Egypt.  This  circumscribed  distribution  suggests  dif¬ 
fusion  from  a  single  originating  center.  Where  this  may  have 
been,  there  is  no  direct  evidence  to  show,  but  there  are  indica¬ 
tions  that  it  lay  in  Babylonia.  Here  mathematics,  astrology, 
and  divination  flourished  at  an  early  time.  Since  the  art  of 
foretelling  the  issue  of  events  from  examination  of  a  victim’s 
liver  spread  from  Babylonia  to  Italy  on  one  side  and  to  Borneo 
on  the  other,  it  is  the  more  likely  that  the  equally  ancient  attri¬ 
bution  of  mystic  virtue  to  seven  may  have  undergone  the  same 
diffusion.  In  fact,  the  two  practices  may  have  traveled  as  part 
of  a  “complex.”  The  Greeks  and  Hebrews  are  virtually  out 
of  question  as  originators  because  they  were  already  thinking 
in  terms  of  seven  at  a  time  when  they  were  only  receiving  cul¬ 
ture  elements  from  Babylonia  without  giving  anything  in  return. 

123.  Babylonian  Discovery  of  the  Planets 

The  Babylonians,  together  with  the  Egyptians,  were  also  the 
first  astronomers.  The  Egyptians  turned  their  interest  to  the 

seven  lived  either  on  the  Atlantic  slope,  such  as  the  Delaware  and  Cherokee, 
and  have  therefore  long  been  in  contact  with  the  colonists;  or  in  the 
Plains — notably  the  Siouan  tribes — and  there  came  into  direct  and  indirect 
relations  with  the  French  for  two  hundred  years  before  ethnologists  visited 
them.  Moreover,  the  number  which  the  Plains  tribes  most  frequently  used 
in  regard  to  sacred  matters  was  four.  The  mystic  value  of  seven  may 
therefore  be  traceable  to  European  influence  wherever  it  appears  in  America. 


254 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


sun  and  the  year,  and  devised  the  earliest  accurate  solar  calendar. 
The  Babylonians  lagged  behind  in  this  respect,  adhering  to  a 
cumbersome  lunar-solar  calendar.  But  they  acquired  more  in¬ 
formation  as  to  other  heavenly  phenomena :  the  phases  of  the 
moon,  eclipses,  the  courses  of  the  planets.  They  devised  the 
zodiac  and  learned  to  half  predict  eclipses.  It  is  true  that  their 
interest  in  these  realms  was  not  scientific  in  the  modern  sense, 
but  sacerdotal  and  magical.  An  eclipse  was  a  misfortune,  an 
expected  eclipse  that  did  not  “come  off, ”  a  cause  for  rejoicing. 
Yet  this  superstitious  interest  did  lead  the  Babylonians  to 
genuine  astronomical  discoveries. 

Among  these  was  the  observation  that  five  luminaries  besides 
the  sun  and  moon  move  regularly  across  the  heavens,  visible 
to  the  naked  eye  and  independent  of  the  host  of  fixed  stars :  the 
planets  that  we  call  Mercury,  Venus,  Mars,  Jupiter,  and  Saturn. 
This  impressive  fact  must  have  significance,  they  felt,  and  from 
anthropocentric  reasons  they  found  the  significance  in  the  in¬ 
fluence  of  these  bodies  on  the  fortunes  of  men.  This  was  the 
beginning  of  astrology,  which  charlatans  and  dupes  still  practise 
among  ourselves,  but  which  in  its  youth  represented  one  of  the 
triumphs  of  civilized  knowledge.  The  planets  were  identified 
with  gods  by  the  Babylonians,  at  any  rate  named  after  gods. 

It  is  even  probable  that  the  ancient  priest-astronomer-magi¬ 
cians  were  driven  to  distinguish  the  full  set  of  observable  planets 
by  their  desire  to  attain  the  full  number  seven.  It  is  not  an 
obvious  thing  by  any  means  that  the  all-illuminating  sun  should 
be  set  on  a  par  with  moving  stars  that  at  times  are  no  more 
conspicuous  than  some  fixed  ones.  No  people  unaffected  by  the 
Babylonian  precedent  has  ever  hit  upon  the  strange  device  of 
reckoning  sun  and  moon  as  stars.  Then,  too,  Mercury  is  per¬ 
ceptible  with  difficulty,  on  account  of  its  proximity  to  the  sun. 
It  is  said  that  great  astronomers  of  a  few  centuries  ago  some¬ 
times  never  in  their  lives  saw  this  innermost  of  the  planets  with 
naked  eye,  at  least  in  northern  latitudes.  It  seems  possible 
therefore  that  its  Babylonian  discovery  may  have  been  hastened 
by  an  eagerness  to  attain  the  perfect  seven  for  the  number  of 
the  traveling  bodies. 


THE  ARCH  AND  THE  WEEK 


255 


124.  Greek  and  Egyptian  Contributions:  the  Astrological 

Combination 

After  the  conquest  of  western  Asia  by  Alexander,  the  Hellen¬ 
istic  Greeks  took  over  the  undifferentiated  Babylonian  astrology- 
astronomy  and  developed  it  into  a  science.  They  for  the  first 
time  determined  the  distance  or  order  of  the  seven  luminaries 
from  the  earth,  and  determined  it  as  correctly  as  was  possible 
as  long  as  it  was  assumed  that  our  earth  formed  the  center  of 
the  universe.  Ptolemy — the  astronomer,  not  the  king — placed 
Saturn  as  the  most  outward,  next  Jupiter,  Mars,  Sun,  Venus, 
Mercury,  Moon. 

This  scientific  advance,  the  west  Asiatic  astrologers  again  took 
hold  of  and  brought  into  connection  with  the  hours  of  the  day. 
For  this  purpose  they  employed  not  the  old  Babylonian  division 
of  the  day  and  night  into  twelve  hours — which  had  long  since 
passed  over  to  the  Greeks — but  the  Egyptian  reckoning  of 
twenty-four.  This  was  possible  because  the  Greek  discoveries 
were  made  in  the  Egyptian  city  of  Alexandria. 

Each  of  the  twenty-four  hours  in  turn  was  assigned  by  the 
astrologers  to  a  planet  in  the  Ptolemaic  order,  beginning  with 
Saturn.  As  there  were  only  the  seven,  the  cycle  began  over 
again  on  the  eighth  hour,  and  in  the  same  way  the  fifteenth  and 
twenty-second  were  “dominated”  by  Saturn.  This  gave  the 
twenty-third  to  Jupiter,  the  twenty-fourth  to  Mars,  and  the 
twenty-fifth — the  first  of  the  next  day,  to  the  Sun.  This  second 
day  was  thought  to  be  specially  under  the  influence  of  the  planet 
of  its  initial  hour,  the  Sun,  as  the  first  was  under  the  influence 
of  its  initial  hour,  that  of  Saturn.  With  the  continuance  of  the 
count,  the  Moon  would  become  dominant  of  the  first  hour  of 
the  third  day,  and  so  on  through  the  repeated  series,  the  re¬ 
maining  planets  emerging  in  the  sequence  Mars,  Mercury, 
Jupiter,  Venus;  whereupon,  the  cycle  having  been  exhausted, 
it  would  begin  all  over  again  with  Saturn’s  day — Saturday,  as 
we  still  call  it — and  its  successors  Sun’s  day  and  Moon’s  day. 

This  was  the  week  as  we  know  it,  evolved  perhaps  somewhat 
more  than  a  century  before  Christ,  soon  carried  back  into  Alex¬ 
andria,  and  there  imparted  to  Greeks,  Romans,  and  other  na¬ 
tionalities.  By  the  time  Jesus  was  preaching,  knowledge  of  the 


256 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


planetary  week  had  reached  Rome.  Less  than  a  century  later, 
its  days  were  being  written  in  Pompeii.  In  another  hundred 
years  it  was  spoken  of  by  contemporaries  as  internationally 
familiar. 

125.  The  Names  of  the  Days  and  the  Sabbath 

As  yet,  however,  the  week  was  more  of  a  plaything  of  the 
superstitious  than  a  civil  or  religious  institution;  and  it  was 
pagan,  not  Christian.  The  names  of  the  days  were  those  of  the 
gods  which  the  Babylonians  had  assigned  to  the  planets  a  thou¬ 
sand  or  more  years  earlier,  or,  in  the  AVestern  world,  “transla¬ 
tions”  of  the  Babylonian  god  names.  The  Greeks  had  long 
before,  in  naming  the  stars  which  we  know  as  Mercury,  Jupiter, 
Venus,  substituted  their  Hermes,  Zeus,  Aphrodite  for  the  Baby¬ 
lonian  Nabu,  Marduk,  Ishtar,  on  the  basis  of  some  resemblance 
of  attributes.  Thus,  Nabu  had  to  do  with  learning  or  cunning 
like  Hermes;  Marduk,  like  Zeus,  wielded  thunder;  Ishtar  and 
Aphrodite  were  both  goddesses  of  love.  The  Romans,  in  turn, 
“translated”  the  Greek  names  into  those  of  their  divinities 
Mercury,  Jupiter,  Venus,  which  survive  for  instance  in  French 
Mercre-di,  Jeu-di,  Vendre-di. 

In  the  passing  on  of  the  week  to  the  Germanic  barbarians, 
still  another  “translation”  was  made,  to  Woden,  Thor,  Frija, 
whence  English  Wedn-es-day,  Thur-s-day,  Fri-day.  It  is  true 
that  these  northern  gods  were  not  equivalents  of  the  Roman  ones, 
but  that  mattered  little.  The  reckoning  of  the  week  was  grow¬ 
ing  in  frequency,  and  some  sort  of  familiar  and  pronounceable 
names  for  its  days  had  to  be  found  for  the  new  peoples  to  whom 
it  spread.  So  a  minimum  of  resemblance  between  two  deities 
answered  for  an  identification.  Moreover,  the  ancients,  because 
they  believed  in  the  reality  of  their  gods  but  not  in  the  infinity 
of  their  number,  were  in  the  habit  of  assuming  that  the  deities 
of  foreign  nations  must  be  at  bottom  the  same  as  their  own. 
Therefore  a  considerable  discrepancy  of  attribute  or  worship 
troubled  them  no  more  than  the  difference  in  name. 

For  the  days  of  the  week,  then,  which  the  public  came  more 
and  more  to  deal  with,  these  translations  were  made.  Astron¬ 
omy,  however,  was  in  the  hands  of  the  learned,  who  knew 


THE  ARCH  AND  THE  WEEK  257 

Latin ;  and  hence  scientists  still  denote  the  planets  as  Mercury, 
Venus,  and  so  on,  instead  of  Woden  and  Frija. 

Jesus  observed  the  Sabbath,  not  Sunday,  which  he  was  either 
ignorant  of  or  would  have  denounced  as  polytheistic.  The  Sab¬ 
bath  was  an  old  Hebrew  institution,  a  day  of  abstention  and 
cessation  from  labor,  evidently  connected  with  and  perhaps  de¬ 
rived  from  the  Babylonian  Shabattum.  These  shabattum  were 

» 

the  seventh,  fourteenth,  twenty-first,  twenty-eighth,  and  also 
nineteenth  days  of  the  month,  the  first  four  probably  having 
reference  to  the  phases  of  the  moon,  and  all  five  being  “days 
of  rest  of  the  heart/’  inauspicious  for  undertakings,  and  there¬ 
fore  unfavorable  for  work.  They  were  thus  tabooed,  supra- 
mundane  days,  and  while  their  recurrence  chiefly  at  seven  day 
intervals,  like  that  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  provided  a  sort  of 
frame  for  a  week,  this  week  was  never  filled  in.  The  influence 
of  the  Babylonian-Hebrew  Sabbath  on  the  development  of  the 
week  was  chiefly  this:  it  provided  the  early  Christians  with  a 
ready-made  habit  of  religiously  observing  one  day  in  seven. 
This  period  coinciding  with  the  seven  day  scheme  of  the  week 
that  was  coming  into  use  among  pagans,  ultimately  reinforced 
the  week  with  the  authority  of  the  church. 

126.  The  Week  in  Christianity,  Islam,  and  Eastern  Asia 

Christianity  however  felt  and  long  resisted  the  essential 
paganism  of  the  week.  The  Roman  Catholic  church  in  its 
calendar  recognizes  the  Lord’s  day,  the  second  to  sixth  days, 
and  the  Sabbath,  but  none  named  after  a  heathen  god.  In 
Greece  the  influence  of  the  Orthodox  church  has  been  strong 
enough  to  establish  a  similar  numbering  in  civil  life ;  and  the 
Slavic  nations,  also  mostly  Orthodox,  follow  the  same  system 
except  that  our  Monday  is  their  “first”  day  and  they  close  the 
week  with  Sunday. 

Sunday,  instead  of  Sabbath-Saturday,  became  the  religious 
day  of  the  week  in  Christianity  because  of  the  early  tradition 
that  it  was  on  this  day  that  Jesus  rose  from  the  dead.  An 
unconscious  motive  of  perhaps  greater  influence  was  the  desire 
to  differentiate  the  new  religion  from  its  Sabbath-observing 
mother  religion,  both  in  the  minds  of  converts  from  Judaism 


258 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


and  in  the  opinion  of  the  pagans.  The  Romans  for  about  a 
century  confused  Jews  and  Christians,  no  doubt  to  the  irrita¬ 
tion  of  both. 

Meanwhile,  the  pagans  themselves,  perhaps  under  the  influ¬ 
ence  of  the  popular  sun-worshiping  Mithraic  religion  of  the 
second  and  third  centuries,  had  come  to  look  upon  the  Sun’s 
day  instead  of  Saturn’s  as  the  first  of  the  week.  At  any  rate, 
in  321  A.D.  Constantine  ordained  “the  venerable  day  of  the 
Sun  ”  as  a  legal  holiday  from  governmental,  civic,  and  industrial 
activity.  Constantine  perhaps  issued  this  decree  as  high  priest 
of  the  state  religion  of  the  Roman  empire,  but  he  was  also  the 
first  Christian  emperor,  and  his  action  must  have  been  wholly 
acceptable  to  the  church.  Before  long,  church  and  state  were  in 
accord  to  discountenance  work  on  Sunday ;  and  thus  Christianity 
had  adopted  the  heathen  planetary  week  in  all  respects  but  the 
names  of  its  days.  Protestantism  finally  withdrew  even  this 
barrier  and  accepted  the  planet-god  names  that  had  so  long 
been  popularly  and  civilly  established. 

The  Mohammedan  week  is  that  of  Judaism  and  Eastern 
Christianity,  and  was  taken  over  bodily  from  one  or  the  other 
of  these  religions.  Sunday  is  the  “first”  day,  and  so  in  order 
to  Thursday.  Friday  is  “the  meeting,”  when  one  prays  at  the 
mosque,  but  labors  before  and  after,  if  one  wishes.  And  Satur¬ 
day  is  “the  Sabbath,”  though  of  course  without  its  Jewish 
prescriptions  and  restrictions.  The  Arabs  have  spread  this  form 
of  the  week  far  into  Africa. 

But  the  planetary  week  of  Babylonian-Greek-Egyptian-Syrian 
origin  spread  east  as  well  as  west  and  north  and  south.  It 
never  became  so  charged  with  religious  meaning  nor  so  definitely 
established  as  a  civil  and  economic  institution  in  Asia  as  in  Eu¬ 
rope,  but  it  was  used  astronomically,  calendrically,  and  in  divi¬ 
nation.  By  the  fifth  century,  it  had  been  introduced  into 
India.  For  a  time  after  the  tenth  century,  it  was  more  used 
in  dating  than  among  European  nations.  Again  1  ‘  translations  ’  ’ 
of  the  god  names  of  the  planets  were  made:  Brihaspati  was 
Jupiter,  and  Brihaspati-vara  Thursday. 

From  India,  the  week  spread  north  into  Tibet,  east  to  the 
Indo-Chinese  countries,  and  southeast  to  the  Malay  Peninsula, 
Sumatra,  and  Java.  In  the  former  lands,  it  was  employed 


THE  ARCH  AND  THE  WEEK 


259 


calendrically ;  among  the  Malaysians,  rather  astrologically,  and 
has  been  largely  superseded  by  the  Mohammedan  form.  Even 
China  acquired  some  slight  acquaintance  with  the  week  as  a 
period  of  seven  days  allotted  to  the  planetary  bodies  and  initi¬ 
ated  by  the  day  of  Mit,  that  is,  Mithra,  the  Persian  sun  god, 
although  the  average  Chinaman  knows  nothing  of  the  days  of 
the  week  nor  any  periodic  rest  from  labor. 

127.  Summary  of  the  Diffusion 

This  history  of  the  week  is  one  of  the  striking  instances  of 
institutional  diffusion.  An  ancient  west  Asiatic  mystic  valua¬ 
tion  or  magical  cult  of  the  number  seven  led  on  the  one  hand 
to  an  observance  of  taboo  days,  on  the  other  to  an  association 
with  the  earliest  astronomical  knowledge,  polytheistic  worship, 
and  divination.  A  European  people  learned  the  combination 
and  built  on  it  for  further  scientific  progress,  only  to  have  this 
gain  utilized  for  new  playing  by  the  astrologers.  The  planetary 
week,  the  creation  of  these  mathematical  diviners,  was  reintro¬ 
duced  into  Europe  and  became  connected  with  the  calendar  and 
civil  life.  Christianity  recontributed  the  old  idea  of  regularly 
recurring  holy  or  taboo  days.  Mohammedanism  took  over  this 
concept  along  with  the  period,  but  without  the  polytheistic  and 
astrological  elements.  Eastern  Asia,  on  the  other  hand,  was 
chiefly  interested  in  the  latter.  With  us,  the  significance  is  be¬ 
coming  increasingly  economic.  Names  have  changed  again  and 
again,  but  their  very  variations  evidence  their  equivalence.  In 
about  three  thousand  years  from  its  first  beginnings  and  half  as 
many  from  its  definitive  establishment,  the  institution  of  the 
week  by  1492  had  spread  over  all  the  earth  except  the  peripheral 
tracts  of  Asia  and  Africa  and  the  peripheral  continents  of 
Oceania  and  America. 

128.  Month-thirds  and  Market  Weeks 

Contrasting  with  this  single  diffusion  of  the  seven-day  week 
is  the  independent  development  in  several  parts  of  the  world 
of  other  periods,  marked  either  by  sacred  or  secularly  unlucky 
days  or  by  markets  or  by  divisions  of  the  lunar  month. 


260 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


For  instance,  a  ten-day  week,  having  reference  to  the  begin¬ 
ning,  middle,  and  end  of  the  lunation,  was  more  or  less  reckoned 
with  in  ancient  Egypt ;  ancient  Greece ;  parts  of  modern  central 
Africa;  China,  Japan,  and  Indo-China;  and  Polynesia.  No  his¬ 
toric  connections  are  known  between  the  custom  in  these  regions ; 
its  official  and  religious  associations  are  everywhere  slender,  and 
intervening  nations  either  employ  other  periods  or  none  at  all. 
It  looks,  therefore,  as  if  these  might  be  cases  of  true  parallelism, 
although  in  that  event  an  American  occurrence  might  also  be 
expected  and  its  absence  seems  in  need  of  explanation.  More¬ 
over  there  is  nothing  very  important  about  this  reckoning;  it  is 
essentially  a  description  of  a  natural  event,  and  the  only  thing 
distinctive  is  its  being  threefold.  If  an  institution  as  precise  and 
artificial  as  our  planetary  week  had  been  independently  origi¬ 
nated  more  than  once,  the  fact  would  be  more  significant. 

Regular  market  days  among  agricultural  peoples  have  fre¬ 
quently  led  to  a  reckoning  of  time  superficially  resembling  the 
week.  Thus,  in  central  Africa,  south  of  the  sphere  of  Islamic 
influences,  markets  are  observed  by  a  considerable  number  of 
tribes.  Most  frequently  these  come  at  four  day  intervals.  Some 
tribes  shorten  the  period  to  three  days  or  lengthen  it  to  five. 
Six,  eight,  and  ten  day  periods  appear  to  be  merely  doublings. 
The  fairly  compact  distribution  of  this  African  market  week 
points  to  a  single  origin. 

The  early  Romans  observed  a  regular  eighth  day  market  and 
semi-holiday.  This  might  be  connected  with  the  African  insti¬ 
tution,  but  as  yet  cannot  be  historically  linked  with  it. 

In  the  less  advanced  states  of  Indo-China  and  many  of  the 
East  Indian  islands,  even  as  far  as  New  Guinea,  five-day  markets 
are  the  rule.  This  entire  tract  has  many  internal  culture  con¬ 
nections,  so  that  within  its  limits  diffusion  has  evidently  again 
been  active. 

In  ancient  America,  markets  were  customary  every  fifth  day 
in  Mexico,  third  day  in  Colombia,  tenth  day  in  Peru.  These 
were  also  days  of  assembly  and  cessation  from  labor. 

The  American  instances  establish  beyond  cavil  that  some  of 
these  market  weeks  are  truly  independent  evolutions.  More¬ 
over,  they  nearly  all  occur  among  peoples  of  about  the  same 
degree  of  advancement,  at  any  rate  on  the  economic  side  of  their 


THE  ARCH  AND  THE  WEEK 


261 


cultures.  But  it  is  only  the  idea,  the  outline  of  the  institution, 
that  is  similar;  its  concrete  cultural  execution,  as  expressed  in 
the  length  of  the  period,  differs  in  Asia  and  Africa,  and  in  the 
three  American  regions.  That  the  Mexican  and  Southeast 
Asiatic  weeks  were  both  of  five  days,  means  nothing  but  the  sort 
of  coincidence  to  be  expected  when  the  choice  of  duration  is 
limited  to  a  small  range,  such  as  between  three  and  ten  days. 

129.  Leap  Days  as  Parallels 

Finally,  there  is  a  correspondence  between  the  Egyptians  and 
Mexicans  in  recognizing  the  solar  year  as  composed  of  360  -f-  5 
days.  The  Egyptians  counted  the  360  in  twelve  months  of  thirty 
days,  the  Mayas  and  Aztecs  in  eighteen  groups  of  twenty  days ; 
both  agreed  in  regarding  the  five  leap  days  as  supplementary  and 
unlucky.  This  last  fact  looks  like  a  close  correspondence,  but 
analysis  dissolves  much  of  the  likeness.  The  solar  year  consists 
of  365  days  and  a  fraction.  There  is  nothing  cultural  about  that 
phenomenon  except  its  recognition.  Careful  observation  con¬ 
tinued  for  a  long  enough  period  inevitably  yields  the  result. 
But  365  is  indivisible  except  by  5  and  73;  360  is  much 
“rounder,”  that  is,  divisible  by  many  numbers,  and  these 
“simple”  like  6,  10,  12,  18,  20,  30,  and  therefore  easier  to  oper¬ 
ate  with.  This  again  is  a  mathematical,  not  a  cultural  fact.  The 
five  supplementary  days  thus  scarcely  represent  any  distinctive 
achievement.  As  to  their  being  considered  unlucky  and  evil, 
that  is  unquestionably  a  true  cultural  parallel. 

At  the  same  time,  this  parallel  cannot  be  enacted  into  any 
generally  valid  law.  The  ancient  Hindu  calendar,  being  directly 
lunar,  had  about  twelve  days  left  over  each  solar  year  end  at 
the  winter  solstice.  These  twelve  days  were  looked  upon  as 
prophetic  and  portentous,  but  not  as  specifically  evil.  The  Per¬ 
sian  and  Armenian  calendars,  seemingly  derived  from  the 
Egyptian,  had  the  same  five  supplementary  days.  But  in  the 
former  the  first  of  its  five  is  reckoned  as  lucky,  only  the  third 
as  unlucky;  and  in  the  latter,  none  of  the  five  has  any  special 
value  or  observance.  Our  own  twenty-ninth  of  February  is 
supplementary  and  we  hold  a  half  serious  belief  or  superstition 
in  regard  to  it  and  its  year,  but  this  has  nothing  to  do  with  luck. 


262 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


In  short,  the  human  mind  does  tend  to  attach  an  unusual  value 
to  any  day  in  the  calendar  that  is  in  any  way  outstanding. 
This  observation  is  a  psychological  one,  and  could  be  predicted 
from  what  is  known  of  the  principle  of  association  in  individual 
psychology.  When  it  comes  to  the  social  expression  of  this 
tendency,  regularity  ceases.  Sometimes  the  value  of  the  special 
day  is  virtually  identical  among  unconnected  social  groups,  such 
as  the  Mayas  and  Egyptians ;  sometimes  it  is  diverse,  as  between 
them  and  ourselves ;  and  sometimes  the  value  wholly  disappears, 
as  in  Armenia.  Parallelism  in  any  matter  of  civilization  is 
never  complete  and  perfect,  just  as  culture  elements  rarely 
spread  far  or  long  without  modification. 


CHAPTER  XI 


THE  SPREAD  OF  THE  ALPHABET 

130.  Kinds  of  writing:  pictographic  and  mixed  phonetic. — 131.  De¬ 
ficiencies  of  transitional  systems. — 132.  Abbreviation  and  conventionaliza¬ 
tion. — 133.  Presumptive  origins  of  transitional  systems. — 134.  Phonetic 
writing:  the  primitive  Semitic  alphabet. — 135.  The  Greek  alphabet:  in¬ 
vention  of  the  vowels. — 136.  Slowness  of  the  invention. — 137.  The  Roman 
alphabet. — 138.  Letters  as  numeral  signs. — 139.  Reform  in  institutions. — 
140.  The  sixth  and  seventh  letters.— 141.  The  tail  of  the  alphabet. — 142. 
Capitals  and  minuscules. — 143.  Conservatism  and  rationalization. — 144. 
Gothic. — 145.  Hebrew  and  Arabic. — 146.  The  spread  eastward:  the  writing 
of  India. — 147.  Syllabic  tendencies. — 148.  The  East  Indies:  Philippine 
alphabets. — 149.  Northern  Asia :  the  conflict  of  systems  in  Korea. 

\ 

130.  Kinds  of  Writing:  Pictographic  and  Mixed  Phonetic 

Three  stages  are  logically  distinguishable  in  the  development 
of  writing.  The  first  is  the  use  of  pictures  of  things  and  sym¬ 
bols  of  ideas :  the  pictographic  method.  In  the  second  stage  the 
representation  of  sounds  begins,  but  is  made  through  pictures 
or  abbreviations  of  pictures:  and  pictures  or  ideographs  as  such 
continue  to  be  used  alongside  the  pictures  whose  value  is 
phonetic.  This  may  be  called  the  mixed  or  transitional  or  rebus 
stage.  Third  is  the  phonetic  phase.  In  this,  the  symbols  used, 
whatever  their  origin  may  have  been,  no  longer  denote  objects 
or  ideas  but  are  merely  signs  for  sounds — words,  syllables,  or  the 
elemental  letter-sounds. 

The  first  of  these  stages,  the  pictographic,  and  the  degree  to 
which  it  flows,  or  rather  fails  to  flow  spontaneously  out  of  the 
human  mind,  have  already  been  discussed  (§  105).  The  second 
or  transitional  stage  makes  use  of  the  principle  that  pictures 
may  either  be  interpreted  directly  as  pictures  or  can  be  named. 
A  picture  or  suggestive  sketch  of  the  organ  of  sight  may  stand 
for  the  thing  itself,  the  eye.  Or,  the  emphasis  may  be  on  the 
word  eye,  its  sound;  then  the  picture  can  be  made  with  the 
purpose  of  representing  that  sound  when  it  has  a  different 

meaning,  as  in  the  pronoun  “I.”  The  method  is  familiar  to  us 

263 


264 


ANTHKOPOLOGY 


in  the  form  of  the  game  which  we  call  ‘  ‘  rebus,  ’  ’  that  is,  a  method 
of  writing  “with  things”  or  pictures  of  objects.  The  insect  bee 
stands  for  the  abstract  verb  “be,”  two  strokes  or  the  figure  2 
for  the  preposition  “to,”  a  picture  of  a  house  with  the  sign 
of  a  tavern,  that  is  an  inn,  for  the  prefix  “in-,”  and  so  on. 
This  charade-like  method  is  cumbersome  and  indirect  enough 
to  provide  the  difficulty  of  interpretation  that  makes  it  fit  for  a 
game  or  puzzle.  But  what  to  us,  who  have  a  system  of  writing, 
is  a  mere  sport  or  occasional  toy,  is  also  the  method  by  which 
peoples  without  writing  other  than  pure  pictography  made  their 
first  steps  toward  the  writing  of  words  and  sounds.  The  prin¬ 
ciple  of  reading  the  name  instead  of  the  idea  of  the  thing  pic¬ 
tured  is  therefore  a  most  important  invention.  It  made  possible 
the  writing  of  pronouns,  prepositions,  prefixes  and  suffixes, 
grammatical  endings,  articles,  and  the  like,  which  are  incapable 
of  representation  by  pictography  alone.  There  is  no  difficulty 
drawing  a  recognizable  picture  of  a  man,  and  two  or  three  such 
pictures  might  give  the  idea  of  men.  But  no  picture  system  can 
express  the  difference  between  “a  man”  and  “the  man.”  Nor 
can  relational  or  abstract  ideas  like  those  of  “here,”  “that,” 
“by,”  “of,”  “you,”  “why,”  be  expressed  by  pictures. 

131.  Deficiencies  of  Transitional  Systems 

Important  as  the  invention  of  the  designation  of  words  or 
sounds  therefore  was,  it  was  at  first  hesitant,  cumbersome,  and 
incomplete  as  compared  with  modern  alphabets.  For  one  thing, 
many  symbols  were  required.  They  had  to  be  pictured  with 
some  accuracy  to  be  recognizable.  A  picture  of  a  bee  must  be 
made  with  some  detail  and  care  to  be  distinguishable  with  cer¬ 
tainty  from  that  of  a  fly  or  wasp  or  beetle.  An  inn  must  be 
drawn  with  its  sign  or  shield  or  some  clear  identifying  mark, 
else  it  is  likely  to  be  read  as  house  or  barn  or  hut  or  shop. 
The  figure  of  the  human  eye  is  a  more  elaborate  character  than 
the  letter  I.  Then,  too,  the  old  pictures  did  not  go  out  of  use. 
When  the  writing  referred  to  bees  and  inns  and  eyes,  pictures 
of  these  things  were  written  and  read  as  pictures.  The  result 
was  that  a  picture  of  an  eye  would  in  one  passage  stand  for  the 


THE  SPREAD  OF  THE  ALPHABET 


265 


organ  and  in  another  for  the  personal  pronoun.  Which  its 
meaning  was,  had  to  be  guessed  from  the  context.  If  the  inter¬ 
pretation  as  pronoun  fitted  best — for  instance,  if  the  next  char¬ 
acters  meant  “tell  you” — that  interpretation  was  chosen;  but 
if  the  next  word  were  recognized  to  be  “  brow,  ”  or  “  wink,  ’  ’  the 
character  would  be  interpreted  as  denoting  the  sense  organ. 
That  is,  the  same  characters  were  sometimes  read  by  their  sense 
and  sometimes  by  their  sound,  once  pictographically  and  once 
phonetically.  Hence  the  system  was  really  transition  al  or 
mixed,  whereas  a  true  alphabet,  which  represents  sounds  only, 
is  unmixed  or  pure  in  principle.  Owing  to  the  paucity  of  sound 
signs  at  first,  the  object  or  idea  signs  had  to  be  retained;  after 
they  were  once  well  established,  they  continued  to  be  kept  along¬ 
side  the  sound  signs  even  after  these  had  grown  numerous.  The 
tenacity  of  most  mixed  systems  is  remarkable.  The  Egyptians 
early  added  word  signs  and  then  syllable  and  pure  letter  signs 
to  their  object  signs.  After  they  had  evolved  a  set  of  letter 
signs  for  the  principal  sounds  of  their  language,  they  might 
perfectly  well  have  discarded  all  the  rest  of  their  hundreds  of 
characters.  But  for  three  thousand  years  they  clung  to  these, 
and  wrote  pictographic  and  phonetic  characters  jumbled  to¬ 
gether.  They  would  even  duplicate  to  make  sure :  as  if  we 
should  write  e-y-e  and  then  follow  with  a  picture  of  an  eye, 
for  fear,  as  it  were,  that  the  spelling  out  was  not  sufficiently 
clear.  From  our  modern  point  of  view  it  seems  at  first  quite 
extraordinary  that  they  should  have  continued  to  follow  this 
plan  a  thousand  years  after  nations  with  whom  they  were  in 
contact,  Phoenicians,  Hebrews,  Greeks,  Romans,  were  using 
simple,  brief,  accurate,  pure  alphabets.  Yet  of  course  they  were 
only  following  the  grooves  of  crystallized  habit,  as  when  we 
write  “weight”  or  “piece”  with  unnecessary  letters,  or  employ 
a  combination  of  two  simple  letters  each  having  its  own  value, 
like  T  and  H,  to  represent  a  third  simple  sound,  that  of  TH. 
With  us,  as  it  was  with  the  Egyptians,  it  would  be  more  of  a 
wrench  and  effort  for  the  adult  generation  to  change  to  new 
and  simpler  characters  or  methods  than  to  continue  in  the  old 
cumbersome  habits.  So  the  advantage  of  the  next  generation  is 
stifled  and  the  established  awkward  system  goes  on  indefinitely. 


266 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


132.  Abbreviation  and  Conventionalization 

This  mixture  of  pictographic  and  ideographic  with  phonetic 
characters,  and  its  long  retention,  were  substantially  as  char¬ 
acteristic  of  Sumerian  or  Babylonian  Cuneiform,  of  Chinese, 
and  of  Maya  and  Aztec  writing,  as  of  Egyptian.  In  all  of  these 
systems  there  was  more  or  less  tendency  to  abbreviate  the  pic¬ 
tures,  to  contract  them  to  a  few  strokes,  to  reduce  the  original 
representations  to  conventional  characters.  Cuneiform  and  pre¬ 
sumably  Chinese  underwent  this  process  early  and  profoundly. 
In  Egyptian  it  also  set  in  and  led  to  Hieratic  and  later  to 
Demotic  cursive  script,  which  consist  of  signs  that  are  meaning¬ 
less  to  the  eye,  although  they  resolve  into  standardized  reduc¬ 
tions  of  the  pictures  which  during  the  same  period  continued  to 
be  made  in  the  monumental  and  religious  Hieroglyphic.  Such 
conventional  abbreviations  made  possible  a  certain  speed  of  pro¬ 
duction,  rendered  writing  of  use  in  business  and  daily  life,  and 
thereby  contributed  to  the  spread  of  literacy.  In  themselves, 
however,  they  introduced  no  new  principle. 

In  addition  to  this  conventionality  of  form  of  characters, 
there  is  to  be  distinguished  also  a  conventionalization  of  mean¬ 
ing  which  is  inherent  in  the  nature  of  writing.  Conventionali¬ 
zation  of  form  accompanies  frequency  or  rapidity  of  writing, 
conventionalization  of  meaning  must  occur  if  there  is  to  be  any 
writing  at  all.  It  develops  in  pure  non-phonetic  pictography  if 
this  is  to  be  able  to  express  any  considerable  range  of  meaning. 
An  outstretched  hand  may  well  be  used  with  the  sense  of  ‘  ‘  give.  ’  ’ 
But  the  beholder  of  the  picture-writing  is  likely  to  interpret  it 
as  “take.’'  Here  is  where  conventionalization  is  necessary:  it 
must  be  understood  by  writers  and  readers  alike  that  such  a 
hand  means  “give”  and  not  “take,”  or  perhaps  the  reverse,  or 
perhaps  that  if  the  palm  is  up  and  the  fingers  flat  the  meaning 
is  “give”  whereas  the  palm  below  of  the  fingers  half  closed 
means  ‘  ‘  take.  ’  ’  Whatever  the  choice,  it  must  be  adhere'd  to ;  the 
standardized,  conventional  element  has  entered.  That  is  why 
one  customarily  speaks  of  “systems”  of  writing.  Without  the 
system,  there  can  be  not  even  picture-writing,  but  only  pictures, 
whose  range  of  power  of  communication  is  far  more  limited. 


THE  SPREAD  OF  THE  ALPHABET  267 

When  the  phonetic  phase  begins  to  be  entered,  conventionali¬ 
zation  of  meaning  is  even  more  important.  An  inn  must  be 
distinguished  from  a  house  by  its  shield,  a  house  from  a  barn 
by  its  chimney,  and  so  on.  The  shield  will  perhaps  have  to  be 
exaggerated  to  be  visible  at  all,  be  heart-shaped  or  circular  to 
distinguish  it  from  windows ;  and  so  forth.  So  with  the  phonetic 
values.  A  syllable  like  English  “per”  might  be  represented  by 
one  scribe  by  means  of  a  cat  with  a  wavy  line  issuing  from  its 
mouth  to  denote  its  purr ;  by  another  by  a  pear ;  by  a  third,  by 
something  that  habitually  came  as  a  pair,  such  as  earrings. 
Any  of  these  combined  with  a  “sieve”  symbol  would  approxi¬ 
mately  render  the  work  “per-ceive.”  But  some  one  else  might 
hit  upon  the  combination  of  a  purse  and  the  setting  sun  at  eve. 
Obviously  there  has  got  to  be  a  concordance  of  method  if  any 
one  but  the  writer  is  to  read  his  inscription  readily.  This  cor¬ 
respondence  of  representation  and  interpretation  is  precisely 
what  constitutes  a  set  of  figures  into  a  system  of  writing  instead 
of  a  puzzle. 

133.  Presumptive  Origins  of  Mixed  Systems 

For  such  a  set  concordance  to  grow  up  among  all  the  diverse 
classes  of  one  large  nation  would  be  very  difficult.  In  fact,  it 
seems  that  transitional  systems  of  writing  have  originated  among 
small  groups  with  common  business  or  purpose,  whose  members 
were  in  touch  with  one  another,  and  perhaps  sufficiently  pro¬ 
vided  with  leisure  to  experiment :  colleges  of  priests,  government 
archivists,  possibly  merchants  with  accounts.  It  is  also  clear 
that  any  system  must  reflect  the  culture  of  the  people  among 
whom  it  originates.  The  ancient  Egyptians  had  no  inns  nor 
purses,  but  did  have  horned  serpents  and  owls.  Still  more  de¬ 
termining  is  the  influence  of  the  language  itself,  as  soon  as 
writing  attempts  to  be  phonetic.  The  words  expressing  pair 
and  sieve  are  obviously  something  else  in  Egyptian  than  in  Eng¬ 
lish,  so  that  if  these  signs  were  used,  their  sound  value  would 
be  quite  otherwise.  Yet  once  a  system  has  crystallized,  there 
is  nothing  to  prevent  a  new  nationality  from  taking  it  over 
bodily.  The  picture  values  of  the  signs  can  be  wholly  disre- 


268 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


garcled  and  their  sounds  read  for  words  of  a  different  meaning ; 
or  the  sounds  could  be  disregarded,  or  the  original  proper  forms 
of  the  characters  be  pretty  well  obliterated,  but  their  idea  value 
carried  over  into  the  other  tongue.  Thus  the  Semitic  Babylo¬ 
nians  took  the  Cuneiform  writing  from  the  Sumerians,  whose 
speech  was  distinct. 

It  is  also  well  to  distinguish  between  such  cases  of  the  whole 
or  most  of  a  system  being  taken  over  bodily,  and  other  instances 
in  which  one  people  qiay  have  derived  the  generic  idea  of  the 
method  of  writing  from  another  and  then  worked  out  a  system 
of  its  own.  Thus  it  is  hard  not  to  believe  in  some  sort  of  con¬ 
nection  of  stimulus  between  Egyptian  and  Cuneiform  writing 
because  they  originated  in  the  same  part  of  the  world  almost 
simultaneously.  Yet  both  the  forms  of  the  characters  and  their 
meaning  and  sound  values  differ  so  thoroughly  in  Egyptian  and 
Cuneiform  that  no  specific  connection  between  them  has  been 
demonstrated,  and  it  seems  unlikely  that  one  is  a  modified  de¬ 
rivative  form  of  the  other.  So  with  the  hieroglyphs  of  the 
Hittites  and  Cretans.  They  appeared  in  near-by  regions  some¬ 
what  later.  Consequently,  although  their  forms  are  distinctive 
and,  so  far  as  can  be  judged  without  our  being  able  to  read 
these  systems,  their  values  also,  it  would  be  dogmatic  to  assert 
that  the  development  of  these  two  writings  took  place  without 
any  stimulation  from  Egyptian  or  Cuneiform.  Something  of 
a  similar  argument  would  perhaps  apply  even  to  Chinese 
(§  251),  though  on  this  point  extreme  caution  is  necessary.  Ac¬ 
cordingly  if  one  thinks  of  the  invention  of  the  first  idea  of  part- 
phonetic  writing,  it  is  conceivable  that  all  the  ancient  systems 
of  the  Old  World  derive  from  a  single  such  invention ;  although 
even  in  that  event  the  Maya- Aztec  system  would  remain  as  a  , 
wholly  separate  growth.  If  on  the  other  hand  one  has  in  mind 
the  content  and  specific  manner  of  systems  of  the  transitional 
type,  Egyptian,  Cuneiform,  and  Chinese,  perhaps  also  Cretan 
and  Hittite,  are  certainly  distinct  and  constitute  so  many  in¬ 
stances  of  parallelism.  Even  greater  is  the  number  of  inde¬ 
pendent  starts  if  one  considers  pure  pictographic  systems,  since 
tolerable  beginnings  of  this  type  were  made  by  the  Indians  of 
the  United  States,  who  never  even  attempted  sound  represen¬ 
tations. 


THE  SPREAD  OF  THE  ALPHABET 


269 


134.  Phonetic  Writing:  the  Primitive  Semitic  Alphabet 

The  last  basic  invention  was  that  of  purely  phonetic  writing 
— the  expressing  only  of  sounds,  without  admixture  of  pictures 
or  symbols.  Perhaps  the  most  significant  fact  about  this  method 
as  distinguished  from  earlier  forms  of  writing  is  that  it  was 
invented  only  once  in  history.  All  the  alphabetic  systems  which 
now  prevail  in  nearly  every  part  of  the  earth — Roman,  Greek, 
Hebrew,  Arabic,  Indian,  as  well  as  many  that  have  become  ex¬ 
tinct — can  be  traced  back  to  a  single  source.  The  story  in  this 
case  is  therefore  one  of  diffusion  and  modification  instead  of 
parallelism. 

What  circumstance  it  was  that  caused  this  all-important  in¬ 
vention  to  be  made,  is  not  known,  unfortunately,  though  time 
may  yet  bring  knowledge.  There  is  even  division  of  opinion 
as  to  the  particular  system  of  mixed  writing  that  was  drawn 
upon  by  the  first  devisers  of  the  alphabet,  or  that  served  as 
jumping  off  place  for  the  invention.  Some  have  looked  to  the 
Egyptian  system,  others  to  a  Cuneiform  or  Cretan  or  Hittite 
source  of  inspiration.  Nor  is  it  wholly  clear  who  were  the  pre¬ 
cise  people  responsible  for  the  invention.  It  is  only  certain  that 
about  1,000  B.C.,  or  a  little  earlier,  some  Semitic  people  of 
western  Asia,  in  the  region  of  the  Hebrews  and  Phoenicians, 
probably  the  latter  themselves,  began  to  use  a  set  of  twenty-two 
non-pictorial  characters  that  stood  for  nothing  but  sounds. 
Moreover,  they  represented  the  sounds  of  Semitic  with  sufficient 
accuracy  for  anything  in  the  language  to  be  written  and  read 
without  trouble.  These  twenty-two  letters  look  simple  and  in¬ 
significant  alongside  the  numerous,  beautiful,  and  interesting 
Egyptian  hieroglyphs.  But  on  them  is  based  every  form  of 
alphabet  ever  used  by  humanity. 

The  earliest  extant  example  of  the  primitive  Semitic  alphabet 1 
is  on  the  famous  Moabite  Stone  of  King  Mesha,  who  in  the  ninth 
century  before  Christ  erected  and  inscribed  this  monument  to 
commemorate  the  successful  defense  of  Moab  against  the  invad¬ 
ing  Hebrews.  Now  Moab  was  a  little  and  rude  country,  somewhat 
off  the  roads  of  commerce  and  civilization.  It  is  hardly  likely, 
therefore,  that  the  Moabites  were  the  inventors  of  the  alphabet. 

i  Except  perhaps  for  the  fragments  of  the  Baal  Lebanon  bowl. 


270 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


It  is  much  more  probable  that  the  system  was  perfected,  per¬ 
haps  several  centuries  earlier,  by  a  wealthier  and  more  impor¬ 
tant  people,  one  more  in  contact  with  foreign  nations,  such  as 
the  Phoenicians,  and  that  from  them  it  spread  to  their  neighbors, 
the  Hebrews,  Moabites,  and  Aramaeans  of  Syria.  This  spread 
must  have  been  facilitated  by  the  close  kinship  of  the  speech  of 
these  nations,  enabling  any  of  them  to  adopt  the  alphabet  of 
another  without  material  modification. 

The  Phoenicians  founded  Carthage,  and  consequently  the 
Carthaginian  or  Punic  writing  until  after  the  extinction  of  the 
great  trading  city  was  also  Phoenician. 

135.  The  Greek  Alphabet:  Invention  of  the  Vowels 

More  important  was  the  spread  of  the  Phoenician  letters  to  an 
entirely  foreign  people,  the  Greeks,  whose  language  was  largely 
composed  of  different  sounds  and  possessed  a  genius  distinct 
from  that  of  the  Semitic  tongues.  The  Greeks’  own  traditions 
attest  that  they  took  over  their  alphabet  from  the  Phoenicians. 
The  fact  of  the  transmission  is  corroborated  by  the  form  of  the 
letters  and  by  their  order  in  the  alphabet.  It  is  also  proved 
very  prettily  by  the  names  of  the  letters.  As  we  speak  of  the 
ABC,  the  Greeks  spoke  of  the  Alpha  Beta — whence  our  word 
“alphabet.”  Now  “alpha”  and  “beta”  mean  nothing  in  Greek. 
They  are  obviously  foreign  names.  In  the  Semitic  languages, 
however,  similar  names,  Aleph  and  Beth,  were  used  for  the  same 
letters  A  and  B,  and  meant  respectively  “ox”  and  “house.” 
Evidently  these  names  were  applied  by  the  Semites  because  they 
employed  the  picture  of  an  ox  head  to  represent  the  first  sound 
in  the  word  Aleph,  and  the  representation  of  a  house  to  repre¬ 
sent  the  sound  of  B  in  Beth.  Or  possibly  the  letters  originated 
in  some  other  way,  and  then,  names  for  them  being  felt  to  be 
desirable,  and  the  shape  of  the  first  rudely  suggesting  the  out¬ 
line  of  an  ox’s  head  and  the  second  a  house,  these  names  were 
applied  to  the  characters  already  in  use. 

The  third  letter  of  the  alphabet,  corresponding  in  place  to 
our  C  and  in  sound  to  our  G,  the  Greeks  called  Gamma,  which 
is  as  meaningless  as  their  Alpha  and  Beta.  It  is  their  corrup¬ 
tion  of  Semitic  Gimel,  which  means  “camel”  and  may  bear 


THE  SPREAD  OF  THE  ALPHABET 


271 


this  name  because  of  its  resemblance  to  the  head  and  neck  of  a 
camel.  The  same  sort  of  correspondence  can  be  traced  through 
most  of  the  remaining  letters.  From  these  names  alone,  then, 
even  if  nothing  else  were  known  about  the  early  alphabets,  it 
weuld  be  possible  to  prove  the  correctness  of  the  Greek  legend 
that  they  derived  their  letters  from  the  Phoenicians.  A  people 
who  themselves  invented  an  alphabet  would  obviously  name  the 
letters  with  words  in  their  own  language,  and  not  with  mean¬ 
ingless  syllables  taken  from  a  foreign  speech. 

The  Greeks  however  did  more  than  take  over  the  alphabet 
from  the  Phoenicians.  They  improved  it.  An  outstanding 
peculiarity  of  Semitic  writing  was  that  it  dispensed  with  vowels. 
It  represented  the  consonants  fully  and  accurately,  in  fact  had 
carefully  devised  letters  for  a  number  of  breath  and  guttural 
sounds  which  European  languages  either  do  not  contain  or  gen¬ 
erally  neglect  to  recognize.  But,  as  if  to  compensate,  the  Semitic 
languages  possess  the  distinctive  trait  of  a  great  variability  of 
vowels.  When  a  verb  is  conjugated,  when  it  is  converted  into  a 
noun,  and  in  other  circumstances,  the  vowels  change,  only  the 
consonants  remaining  the  same,  much  as  in  English  “sing”  be¬ 
comes  “sang”  in  the  past  and  “goose”  changes  to  “geese”  in 
the  plural.  Only,  in  English  such  changes  are  comparatively 
few,  whereas  in  Semitic  they  are  the  overwhelming  rule  and 
quite  intricate.  The  result  of  this  fluidity  of  the  vowels  was 
that  when  the  Semites  invented  their  letters  they  renounced  the 
attempt  to  write  the  vowels.  Apparently  they  felt  the  conso¬ 
nants,  the  only  permanent  portions  of  their  words,  as  a  sort  of 
skeleton,  sufficient  for  an  unmistakable  outline.  So,  with  their 
ordinary  consonants,  plus  letters  for  J  and  V  which  at  need 
could  be  made  to  stand  for  I  and  U,  and  the  consistent  employ¬ 
ment  of  breaths  and  stops  to  indicate  the  presence  or  absence 
of  vowels  at  the  beginning  and  end  of  words,  they  managed  to 
make  their  writing  readily  legible.  It  was  as  if  we  should  write : 
’n  Gd  w’  trst  or  Ths  wy  ’t.  Even  to-day  the  Bible  is  written 
and  read  in  the  Jewish  synagogue  by  this  vowelless  system  of 
three  thousand  years  ago. 

In  the  Greek  language  more  confusion  would  have  been  caused 
by  this  system.  Moreover,  the  alphabet  came  to  the  Greeks  as 
something  extraneous,  so  that  they  were  not  under  the  same 


272 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


temptation  as  the  Phoenicians  to  follow  wholly  in  the  footsteps 
of  the  first  generation  of  inventors.  As  a  result,  the  Greeks 
took  the  novel  step  of  adding  vowel  letters. 

It  is  significant  that  what  the  Greeks  did  was  not  to  make 
the  new  vowel  signs  out  of  whole  cloth,  as  it  were,  out  of  noth¬ 
ing,  but  that  they  followed  the  method  which  is  characteristic 
of  invention  in  general.  They  took  over  the  existing  system, 
twisted  and  stretched  it  as  far  as  they  could,  and  created  out¬ 
right  only  when  they  were  forced  to.  While  the  Phoenician 
alphabet  lacked  vowel  signs,  the  Greeks  felt  that  it  had  a  super¬ 
fluity  of  signs  for  breaths  and  stops.  So  they  transformed  the 
Semitic  breaths  and  stops  into  vowels.  Thus  they  satisfied  the 
needs  of  their  language ;  and  incidentally  added  the  capstone 
to  the  alphabet.  It  was  the  first  time  that  a  system  of  writing 
had  been  brought  on  the  complete  basis  of  a  letter  for  every 
sound.  All  subsequent  European  alphabets  are  merely  modifi¬ 
cations  of  the  Greek  one. 

The  first  of  the  Semitic  letters,  the  Aleph,  stood  for  the  glottal 
stop,  a  check  or  closure  of  the  glottis  in  which  the  vocal  cords 
are  situated;  a  sound  that  occurs,  although  feebly,  between  the 
two  o’s  in  “coordinate”  when  one  articulates  distinctly.  In  the 
Semitic  languages  this  glottal  stop  is  frequent,  vigorous,  and 
etymologically  important,  wherefore  the  Semites  treated  it  like 
any  other  consonant.  The  Greeks  gave  it  a  new  value,  that  of 
the  vowel  A.  Similarly  they  transformed  the  value  of  the  sym¬ 
bols  for  two  breath  sounds,  a  mild  and  a  harsh  H,  into  short  and 
long  E,  which  they  called  Epsilon  and  Eta.  Their  0  is  made 
over  from  a  Semitic  guttural  letter,  while  for  I  the  Semitic 
ambiguous  J-I  was  ready  to  hand.  U,  written  Y  by  the  Greeks, 
is  a  dissimilated  variant  of  F,  both  being  derived  from  Semitic 
Vau  or  the  sixth  letter  with  the  value  of  V  or  U.  The  vocalic 
form  was  now  put  at  the  end  of  the  alphabet,  which  previously 
had  ended  with  T.  Its  consonantal  double,  F,  later  went  out  of 
use  in  Greek  speech  and  was  dropped  from  the  alphabet. 

136.  Slowness  of  the  Invention 

The  Greeks  did  not  make  these  alterations  of  value  all  at  once. 
The  value  of  several  of  the  letters  fluctuated  in  the  different 


THE  SPREAD  OF  THE  ALPHABET 


273 


parts  of  Greece  for  two  or  three  centuries.  In  one  city  a  certain 
value  or  form  of  a  letter  would  come  into  usage ;  in  another, 
the  same  letter  would  be  shaped  differently,  or  stand  for  a  con¬ 
sonant  instead  of  a  vowel.  Thus  the  character  H  was  long  read 
by  some  of  the  Greeks  as  H,  by  others  as  long  E.  This  fact 
illustrates  the  principle  that  the  Greek  alphabet  was  not  an  in¬ 
vention  which  leaped,  complete  and  perfect,  out  of  the  brain  of 
an  individual  genius,  as  inventions  do  in  film  plays  and  romantic 
novels,  and  as  the  popular  mind,  with  its  instinct  for  the  dra¬ 
matic,  likes  to  believe.  One  might  imagine  that  with  the  basic 
plan  of  the  alphabet,  and  the  majority  of  its  symbols,  provided 
ready-made  by  the  Phoenicians,  it  would  have  been  a  simple 
matter  for  a  single  Greek  to  add  the  finishing  touches  and  so 
shape  his  national  system  of  writing  as  it  has  come  down  to  us. 
In  fact,  however,  these  little  finishing  touches  were  several  cen¬ 
turies  in  the  making;  the  final  result  was  a  compromise  between 
all  sorts  of  experiments  and  beginnings.  One  can  picture  an 
entire  nationality  litferally  groping  for  generation  after  genera¬ 
tion,  and  only  slowly  settling  on  the  ultimate  system.  There 
must  have  been  dozens  of  innovators  who  tried  their  hand  at  a 
modification  of  the  value  or  form  of  a  letter. 

Nor  can  it  be  denied  that  wdiat  was  new  in  the  Greek  alphabet 
was  a  true  invention.  The  step  of  introducing  full  vowel  char¬ 
acters  was  as  definitely  original  and  almost  as  important  as  any 
new  progress  in  the  history  of  civilization.  Yet  it  is  not  even 
known  who  the  first  individual  was  that  tried  to  apply  this  idea. 
Tradition  is  silent  on  the  point.  It  is  quite  conceivable  that  the 
first  writing  of  vowels  may  have  been  independently  attempted 
by  a  number  of  individuals  in  different  parts  of  Greece. 

137.  The  Roman  Alphabet 

The  Roman  alphabet  was  derived  from  the  Greek.  But  it  is 
clear  that  it  was  not  taken  from  the  Greek  alphabet  after  this 
had  reached  its  final  or  classic  form.  If  such  had  been  the  case, 
the  Roman  letters,  such  as  we  still  use  them,  would  undoubtedly 
be  more  similar  to  the  Greek  ones  than  they  are,  and  certain 
discrepancies  in  the  values  of  the  letters,  as  well  as  in  their 
order,  would  not  have  occurred.  In  the  old  days  of  writing, 


274 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


when  a  number  of  competing  forms  of  the  alphabet  still  flour¬ 
ished  in  the  several  Greek  cities,  one  of  these  forms,  developed 
at  Chalcis  on  Euboea  and  allied  on  the  whole  to  those  of  the 
Western  Hellenic  world,  was  carried  to  Italy.  There,  after  a 
further  course  of  local  diversification,  one  of  its  subvarieties  be¬ 
came  fixed  in  the  usage  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  city  of  Rome. 
Now  the  Romans  at  this  period  still  pronounced  the  sound  H, 
which  later  became  feeble  in  the  Latin  tongue  and  finally  died 
out.  On  the  other  hand  the  distinction  between  short  and  long 
(or  close  and  open)  E,  which  the  Greeks  after  many  experiments 
came  to  recognize  as  important  in  their  speech,  was  of  no  great 
moment  in  Latin.  The  result  was  that  whereas  classic  Greek 
turned  both  the  Semitic  H’s  into  E’s,  Latin  accepted  only  the 
first  of  these  modifications,  that  one  affecting  the  fifth  letter  of 
the  alphabet,  whereas  the  other  H,  occupying  the  eighth  place 
in  the  alphabetic  series,  continued  to  be  used  by  the  Romans 
with  approximately  its  original  Semitic  value.  This  retention, 
however,  was  possible  because  Greek  writing  was  still  in  a  transi¬ 
tional,  vacillating  stage  when  it  reached  the  Romans.  The 
Western  Greek  form  of  the  alphabet  that  was  carried  to  Italy 
was  still  using  the  eighth  letter  as  an  H;  so  that  the  Romans 
were  merely  following  their  teachers.  Had  they  based  their 
letters  on  the  “ classic”  Greek  alphabet  which  was  standardized 
a  few  hundred  years  later,  the  eighth  as  well  as  the  fifth  letter 
would  have  come  to  them  with  its  vowel  value  crystallized.  In 
that  case  the  Romans  would  either  have  dispensed  altogether 
with  writing  H,  or  would  have  invented  a  totally  new  sign  for 
it  and  probably  tacked  it  on  to  the  end  of  the  alphabet,  as  both 
they  and  the  Greeks  did  in  the  case  of  several  other  letters. 

The  net  result  is  the  curious  one  that  whereas  the  Roman 
alphabet  is  derived  from  the  Greek,  and  therefore  subsequent, 
it  remains,  in  this  particular  matter  of  the  eighth  letter,  nearer 
to  the  original  Semitic  alphabet. 

There  are  other  letters  in  the  Roman  alphabet  which  cor¬ 
roborate  the  fact  of  its  being  modeled  on  a  system  of  the  period 
when  Greek  writing  still  remained  under  the  direct  influence 
of  Phoenician.  The  Semitic  languages  possessed  two  K  sounds, 
usually  called  Kaph  and  Koph,  or  K  and  Q,  of  which  the  former 
was  pronounced  much  like  our  K  and  the  latter  farther  back 


THE  SPREAD  OF  THE  ALPHABET 


275 


toward  the  throat.  The  Greeks  not  having  both  these  sounds 
kept  the  letter  Kaph,  which  they  called  Kappa,  and  gradually 
discarded  Koph  or  Koppa.  Yet  before  its  meaning  had  become 
entirely  lost,  they  had  carried  it  to  Italy.  There  the  Romans 
seized  upon  it  to  designate  a  variety  of  K  which  the  Greek  dia¬ 
lects  did  not  possess,  namely  KW ;  which  is  of  course  the 
phonetic  value  which  the  symbol  Q  still  has  in  English.  The 
Romans  were  reasonable  in  this  procedure,  for  in  early  Latin 
the  Q  was  produced  with  the  extreme  rear  of  the  tongue,  much 
like  the  original  Koph. 

138.  Letters  as  Numeral  Signs 

In  later  Greek,  Koph  remained  only  as  a  curious  survival. 
Although  not  used  as  a  letter,  it  was  a  number  symbol.  None 
of  the  ancients  possessed  pure  numeral  symbols  of  the  type  of 
our  “Arabic”  ones.  The  Semites  and  the  Greeks  employed  the 
letters  of  the  alphabet  for  this  purpose,  each  letter  having  a 
numeral  value  dependent  on  its  place  in  the  alphabet.  Thus 
A  stood  for  1,  B  for  2,  C  or  Gamma  for  3,  F  for  6,  I  for  10, 
K  for  20  and  so  on.  As  this  series  became  established,  Q  as 
a  numeral  denoted  90;  the  Greeks,  long  after  they  had  ceased 
writing  Q  as  a  letter,  used  it  with  this  arithmetical  value.  Once 
it  had  acquired  a  place  in  the  series,  it  would  have  been  far  too 
confusing  to  drop.  With  Q  omitted,  R  would  have  had  to  be 
shifted  in  its  value  from  100  to  90.  One  man  would  have  con¬ 
tinued  to  use  R  with  its  old  value,  while  his  more  new-fashioned 
neighbor  or  son  would  have  written  it  to  denote  ten  less.  Arith¬ 
metic  would  have  been  as  thoroughly  wrecked  as  if  we  should 
decide  to  drop  out  the  figure  5  and  write  6  whenever  we  meant 
5,  7  to  express  6,  and  so  on.  Habit  in  such  cases  is  insuperable. 
No  matter  how  awkward  an  established  system  becomes,  it  nor¬ 
mally  remains  more  practical  to  retain  with  its  deficiencies  than 
to  replace  by  a  better  scheme.  The  wrench  and  cost  of  reforma¬ 
tion  are  greater,  or  are  felt  to  be  greater  by  each  generation, 
than  the  advantages  to  be  gained. 


276 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


139.  Reform  in  Institutions 

This  is  one  reason  why  radical  changes  are  so  difficult  to  bring 
about  in  institutions.  These  are  social  and  therefore  in  a  sense 
arbitrary.  In  mechanical  or  “  practical  ”  matters  people  adjust 
themselves  to  the  pressure  of  new  conditions  more  quickly.  If 
a  nation  has  been  in  the  habit  of  wearing  clothing  of  wool,  and 
this  material  becomes  scarce  and  expensive,  some  attempt  will 
indeed  be  made  to  increase  the  supply  of  wool,  but  if  produc¬ 
tion  fails  to  keep  pace  with  the  deficiency,  cotton  is  substituted 
with  little  reluctance.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  a  calendar  becomes 
antiquated,  which  could  be  changed  by  a  simple  act  of  will,  by 
the  mere  exercise  of  community  reason,  a  tremendous  resistance 
is  encountered.  Time  and  again  nations  have  gone  on  with  an 
antiquated  or  cumbersome  calendar  long  after  any  mediocre 
mathematician  or  astronomer  could  have  devised  a  better  one. 
It  is  usually  reserved  for  an  autocratic  potentate  of  undisputed 
authority,  a  Cassar  or  a  Pope,  or  for  a  cataclysm  like  the  French 
and  Russian  revolutions,  to  institute  the  needed  reform.  As 
long  as  men  are  concerned  with  their  bodily  wants,  those  which 
they  share  with  the  lower  animals,  they  appear  sensible  and 
adaptable.  In  proportion  however  as  the  alleged  products  of 
their  intellects  are  involved,  when  one  might  most  expect  fore¬ 
sight  and  reason  and  cool  calculation  to  be  influential,  societies 
seem  swayed  by  a  conservatism  and  stubbornness  the 
strength  of  which  looms  greater  as  we  examine  history  more 
deeply. 

Of  course,  each  nation  and  generation  regards  itself  as  the 
one  exception.  But  irrationality  is  as  easy  to  discern  in  modern 
institutions  as  in  ancient  alphabets,  if  one  has  a  mind  to  see  it. 
Daylight  saving  is  an  example  very  near  home.  For  centuries 
the  peoples  of  western  civilization  have  gradually  got  out  of 
bed,  breakfasted,  worked,  dined,  and  gone  to  sleep  later  and 
later,  until  the  middle  of  their  waking  day  came  at  about  two 
or  three  o’clock  instead  of  noon.  The  beginning  of  the  natural 
day  was  being  spent  in  sleep,  most  relaxation  taken  at  night. 
This  was  not  from  deliberate  preference,  but  from  a  species  of 
procrastination  of  which  the  majority  were  unintentionally 
guilty.  Finally  the  wastefulness  of  the  condition  became  evi- 


THE  SPREAD  OF  THE  ALPHABET 


277 


dent.  Every  one  was  actually  paying  money  for  illumination 
which  enabled  him  to  sit  in  a  room  while  he  might  have  been 
amusing  himself  gratis  outdoors.  Really  rational  beings  would 
have  changed  their  habits — blown  the  factory  whistle  at  seven 
instead  of  eight,  opened  the  office  at  eight  instead  of  nine,  gone 
to  the  theater  at  seven  and  to  bed  at  ten.  But  the  herd  impulse 
was  too  strong.  The  individual  that  departed  from  the  custom 
of  the  mass  would  have  been  made  to  suffer.  The  first  theater 
opening  at  seven  would  have  played  to  empty  chairs.  The  office 
closing  at  four  would  have  lost  the  business  of  the  last  hour  of 
the  day  without  compensation  from  the  empty  hour  prefixed  at 
the  beginning.  The  only  way  out  was  for  every  one  to  agree  to 
a  self-imposed  fiction.  So  the  nations  that  prided  themselves 
most  on  their  intelligence  solemnly  enacted  that  all  clocks  be  set 
ahead.  Next  morning,  every  one  had  cheated  himself  into  an 
hour  of  additional  daylight,  and  the  illuminating  plant  out  of 
an  hour  of  revenue,  without  any  one  having  had  to  depart  from 
established  custom ;  which  last  was  evidently  the  course  actually 
to  be  avoided  at  all  hazards. 

Of  course,  most  individual  men  and  women  are  neither  idiotic 
nor  insane.  The  only  conclusion  is  that  as  soon  and  as  long 
as  people  live  in  relations  and  act  in  groups,  something  wholly 
irrational  is  imposed  on  them,  something  that  is  inherent  in  the 
very  nature  of  society  and  civilization.  There  appears  to  be 
little  or  nothing  that  the  individual  can  do  in  regard  to  this 
force  except  to  refrain  from  adding  to  its  irrationality  the  delu¬ 
sion  that  it  is  rational. 

140.  The  Sixth  and  Seventh  Letters 

The  letters,  such  as  Q,  in  which  the  Roman  alphabet  is  in 
agreement  with  the  original  Semitic  one  and  differs  from 
classic  Greek  writing,  might  lead,  if  taken  by  themselves,  to  the 
conjecture  that  the  ancient  Italians  had  perhaps  not  derived 
their  alphabet  via  the  Greeks  at  all,  but  directly  from  the  Phoe¬ 
nicians.  But  this  conclusion  is  untenable :  first,  because  the 
forms  of  the  earliest  Latin  and  Greek  letters  are  on  the  whole 
more  similar  to  each  other  than  to  the  contemporaneous  Semitic 
forms ;  and  second  because  of  the  deviations  from  the  Semitic 


278 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


prototype  which  the  Latin  and  Greek  systems  share  with  each 
other,  as  in  the  vowels. 

The  sixth  letter  of  the  Roman  alphabet,  F,  the  Semitic  Waw 
or  Vau,  is  wanting  in  classic  Greek,  although  retained  in  certain 
early  and  provincial  dialects.  One  of  the  brilliant  discoveries 
of  classical  philology  was  that  the  speech  in  which  the  Homeric 
poems  were  originally  composed  still  possessed  this  sound,  nu¬ 
merous  irregularities  of  scansion  being  explainable  only  on  the 
basis  of  its  original  presence.  The  letter  for  it  looked  like  two 
Greek  G’s,  one  set  on  top  of  the  other.  Hence,  later  when  it 
had  long  gone  out  of  use  except  as  a  numeral,  it  was  called 
Di-gamma  or  “double-G.” 

The  seventh  Semitic  letter,  which  in  Greek  finally  became  the 
sixth  on  account  of  the  loss  of  the  Yau  or  Digamma,  was  Zayin, 
Greek  Zeta,  our  Z.  This,  in  turn,  the  Romans  omitted,  because 
their  language  lacked  the  sound.  They  filled  its  place  with  G, 
which  in  Phoenician  and  Greek  came  in  third  position.  The 
shift  came  about  thus.  The  earliest  Italic  writing  followed  the 
Semitic  and  Greek  original  and  had  C,  pronounced  G,  as  its 
third  letter.  But  in  Etruscan  the  sounds  K  and  G  were  hardly 
distinguished.  K  therefore  went  out  of  use;  and  the  early  Ro¬ 
mans  followed  the  precedent  of  their  cultured  and  influential 
Etruscan  neighbors.  For  a  time,  therefore,  the  single  character 
C  was  employed  for  both  G  and  K  in  Latin.  Finally,  about  the 
third  century  before  Christ,  a  differentiation  being  found  de¬ 
sirable,  the  C  was  written  as  C  when  it  stood  for  the  “hard” 
or  voiceless  sound  K,  but  with  a  small  stroke,  as  G,  when  it  rep¬ 
resented  the  soft  or  voiced  sound ;  and,  the  seventh  place  in  the 
alphabet,  that  of  Z,  being  vacant,  this  modified  character  was 
inserted.  Thus  original  C,  pronounced  G,  was  split  by  the 
Latins  into  two  similar  letters,  one  retaining  the  shape  and 
place  in  the  alphabet  of  Gimel-Gamma,  the  other  retaining  the 
sound  of  Gamma  but  displacing  Zeta. 

But  the  letter  Z  did  not  remain  permanently  eliminated  from 
western  writing.  As  long  as  the  Romans  continued  rude  and 
self-sufficient,  they  had  no  need  of  a  character  for  a  sound 
which  they  did  not  speak.  When  they  became  powerful,  ex¬ 
panded,  touched  Greek  civilization,  and  borrowed  from  this  its 
literature,  philosophy,  and  arts,  they  took  over  also  many  Greek 


THE  SPREAD  OF  THE  ALPHABET 


279 


names  and  words.  As  Z  occurred  in  these,  they  adopted  the 
character.  Yet  to  have  put  it  in  its  original  seventh  place  which 
was  now  occupied  by  G,  would  have  disturbed  the  position  of 
the  following  letters.  It  was  obviously  more  convenient  to  hang 
this  once  rejected  and  now  reinstated  character  on  at  the  end 
of  the  alphabet;  and  there  it  is  now. 

141.  The  Tail  of  the  Alphabet 

In  fact,  the  last  six  letters  of  our  alphabet  are  additions  of 
this  sort.  The  original  Semitic  alphabet  ended  with  T.  U  was 
differentiated  by  the  Greeks  from  F  to  provide  for  one  of  their 
vowel  sounds.  This  addition  was  made  at  an  early  enough 
period  to  be  communicated  to  the  Romans.  This  nation  wrote 
U  both  for  the  vowel  U  and  the  consonantal  or  semi-vowel  sound 
of  our  W.  To  be  exact,  they  did  not  write  U  at  all,  but  what 
we  should  call  V,  pronouncing  it  sometimes  U  and  sometimes  W. 
They  spelled  cvm,  not  cum. 

Later,  they  added  X.  An  old  Semitic  S-sound,  in  fifteenth 
place  in  the  alphabet  and  distinct  from  the  S  in  twenty-first 
position  which  is  the  original  of  our  S,  was  used  for  both  SS 
and  KS.  In  classic  Greek,  one  form,  with  KS  value,  maintained 
itself  in  its  original  place.  In  other  early  Grseco-Italic  alpha¬ 
bets,  the  second  form,  with  SS  value,  kept  fifteenth  place  and 
the  X  or  KS  variant  was  put  at  the  end,  after  U.  The  SS  letter 
later  dropped  out  because  it  was  not  distinguished  in  pronun¬ 
ciation  from  S. 

The  Y  that  follows  X  is  intrinsically  nothing  but  the  U  which 
the  Romans  already  had — a  sort  of  double  of  it.  The  Greek  U 
however  was  pronounced  differently  from  the  Latin  one — like 
French  U  or  German  u.  The  literary  Roman  felt  that  he  could 
not  adequately  represent  it  in  Greek  words  by  his  own  U.  He 
therefore  took  over  the  U  as  the  Greeks  wrote  it — that  is,  a  re¬ 
duced  V  on  top  of  a  vertical  stroke.  This  character  naturally 
came  to  be  known  as  Greek  U ;  and  in  modern  French  Y  is  not 
simply  called  “Y,”  as  in  English,  but  “Y-grec,”  that  is, 
“Greek  Y.” 

With  Z  added  to  U  (Y),  X,  and  Y,  the  ancient  Roman 
alphabet  was  completed. 

Our  modern  Roman  alphabet  is  however  still  fuller.  The  two 


280 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


values  which  V  had  in  Latin,  that  of  the  vowel  U  and  the  semi¬ 
vowel  W,  are  so  similar  that  no  particular  hardship  was  caused 
through  their  representation  by  the  one  character.  But  in  the 
development  of  Latin  from  the  classic  period  to  mediaeval  times, 
the  semi-vowel  sound  W  came  to  be  pronounced  as  the  conso¬ 
nant  V  as  we  speak  it  in  English.  This  change  occurred  both 
in  Latin  in  its  survival  as  a  religious  and  literary  tongue,  and 
in  the  popularly  spoken  Romance  languages,  like  French  and 
Italian,  that  sprang  out  of  Latin.  Finally  it  was  felt  that  the 
full  vowel  U  and  the  pure  consonant  V  were  so  different  that 
separate  letters  for  them  would  be  convenient.  The  two  forms 
with  rounded  and  pointed  bottom  were  already  actually  in  use 
as  mere  calligraphic  variants,  although  not  distinguished  in 
sound,  V  being  usually  written  at  the  beginning  of  words,  U 
in  the  middle.  Not  until  after  the  tenth  century  did  the  custom 
slowly  and  undesignedly  take  root  of  using  the  pointed  letter 
exclusively  for  the  consonant,  which  happened  to  come  most  fre¬ 
quently  at  the  head  of  words,  and  the  rounded  letter  for  the 
vowel  which  was  commoner  medially. 

In  the  same  way  I  and  J  were  originally  one  letter.  In  the 
original  Semitic  this  stood  for  the  semi-vowel  J  (or  “Y”  as  in 
yet)  ;  in  Greek  for  the  vowel  I ;  in  Latin  indifferently  for  vowel 
or  semi-vowel,  as  in  Ianuarius.  Later,  however,  in  English, 
French,  and  Spanish  speech,  the  semi-vowel  became  a  consonant 
just  as  Y  had  become.  When  differentiation  between  I  as  vowel 
and  as  consonant  seemed  necessary,  it  was  effected  by  seizing 
upon  a  distinction  in  form  which  had  originated  merely  as  a 
calligraphic  flourish.  About  the  fifteenth  century,  I  was  given 
a  round  turn  to  the  left,  when  at  the  beginning  of  words,  as  an 
ornamental  initial.  The  distinction  in  sound  value  came  still 
later.  The  forms  I  and  J  were  kept  together  in  the  alphabet, 
as  U  and  V  had  been,  the  juxtaposition  serving  as  a  memento 
of  their  recency  of  distinction — like  the  useless  dot  over  small  j. 
Had  the  people  of  the  Middle  Ages  still  been  using  the  letters 
of  the  alphabet  for  numerical  figures  as  did  the  Greeks,  they 
would  undoubtedly  have  found  it  more  convenient  to  keep  the 
order  of  the  old  letters  intact.  J  and  U  would  in  that  case 
almost  certainly  have  been  put  at  the  end  of  the  alphabet  instead 
of  adjacent  to  I  and  V. 


THE  SPREAD  OP  THE  ALPHABET 


281 


J  presents  a  survival — a  significant  anachronism.  Although 
now  recognized  in  the  alphabet,  the  letter  is  not  always  accorded 
its  full  place  in  the  series;  now  and  then  it  is  treated  like  an 
adopted  child  whose  position  in  the  family  is  somewhat  sub¬ 
sidiary.  When  a  continental  European  uses  letters  to  designate 
rows  of  chairs  in  a  theater,  paragraph  headings  in  a  book,  a 
series  of  shipping  marks,  or  any  other  listing,  he  often  omits  J, 
passing  directly  from  I  to  K  as  a  Roman  of  two  thousand  years 
ago  would  have  done.  Americans  occasionally  do  the  same :  in 
Washington,  K  street  follows  directly  on  I  street.  If  asked  the 
reason,  we  perhaps  rationalize  the  omission  on  the  ground  that 
I  and  J  look  so  much  alike  that  they  run  risk  of  being  confused. 
Yet  it  scarcely  occurs  to  us  that  I  and  L,  or  I  and  T,  can  also 
be  easily  confused.  The  true  cause  of  the  habit  seems  to  be  the 
unconscious  one  that  our  ancestors,  in  using  the  letters  seriatim, 
followed  I  by  K  because  they  had  no  J. 

The  origin  of  W  is  accounted  for  by  its  name,  “Double-U,” 
and  by  its  form,  which  is  that  of  two  V’s.  The  old  Latin  pro¬ 
nunciation  of  V  gradually  changed  from  W  to  V,  and  many  of 
the  later  European  languages  either  contained  no  W-sound  or 
indicated  it  by  the  device  of  writing  U  or  some  combination  into 
which  U  entered.  Thus  the  French  write  OU  and  the  Spanish 
HU  for  the  sound  of  W.  In  English,  however,  and  in  a  few 
other  European  languages,  the  semi-vowel  sound  was  important 
enough  to  make  a  less  circumstantial  representation  advisable. 
Since  the  sound  of  the  semi-vowel  was  felt  to  be  fuller  than  that 
of  the  consonant,  a  new  letter  was  coined  for  the  former  by 
coupling  together  two  of  the  latter.  This  innovation  did  not 
begin  to  creep  into  English  until  the  eleventh  century.  Being 
an  outgrowth  of  U  and  Y,  W  was  inserted  after  them  as  J  was 
after  I.  It  is  a  slight  but  interesting  instance  of  convergence 
that  its  name  is  exactly  parallel  to  the  name  “ Double  Gamma” 
which  the  Greek  grammarians  coined  for  F  long  before. 

142.  Capitals  and  Minuscules 

The  distinction  between  capitals  and  “ small”  letters  is  one 
which  we  learn  so  early  in  life  that  we  are  wont  to  take  it  as 
something  self-evident  and  natural.  Yet  it  is  a  late  addition 


282 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


in  the  history  of  the  alphabet.  Greeks  and  Romans  knew  noth¬ 
ing  of  it.  They  wrote  wholly  in  what  we  should  call  capital 
letters.  If  they  wanted  a  title  or  heading  to  stand  out,  they 
made  the  letters  larger,  but  not  different  in  form.  The  same  is 
done  to-day  in  Hebrew  and  Arabic,  and  in  fact  in  all  aphabets 
except  those  of  Europe. 

Our  own  two  kinds  or  fonts  of  letters,  the  capital  and  “lower 
case”  or  “minuscule,”  are  more  different  than  we  ordinarily 
realize.  We  have  seen  them  both  so  often  in  the  same  words 
that  we  are  likely  to  forget  that  the  “A”  differs  even  more  in 
form  than  in  size  from  “a,”  and  that  “b”  has  wholly  lost  the 
upper  of  the  two  loops  which  mark  “B.”  In  late  Imperial 
Roman  times  the  original  “capital”  forms  of  the  letters  were 
retained  for  inscriptional  purposes,  but  in  ordinary  writing 
changes  began  to  creep  in.  These  modifications  increased  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  giving  rise  first  to  the  “Uncial”  and  then  to  the 
“Minuscule”  forms  of  the  letters.  Both  represent  a  cursive 
rather  than  a  formal  script.  The  minuscules  are  essentially  the 
modern  “small”  letters.  But  when  they  first  developed,  people 
wrote  wholly  in  them,  reserving  the  older  formal  capitals  for 
chapter  initials.  Later,  the  capitals  crept  out  of  their  temporary 
rarity  and  came  to  head  paragraphs,  sentences,  proper  names, 
and  in  fact  all  words  that  seemed  important.  Even  as  late  as  a 
few  centuries  ago,  every  English  noun  was  written  and  printed 
with  a  capital  letter,  as  it  still  is  in  German.  Of  course  little  or 
nothing  was  gained  by  this  procedure.  In  many  sentences  the 
significant  word  must  be  a  verb  or  adjective ;  and  yet,  according 
to  the  arbitrary  old  rule,  it  was  the  noun  that  was  made  to 
stand  out. 

To-day  we  still  feel  it  necessary  in  English  to  retain  capitals 
for  proper  names.  It  is  certain  that  a  suggestion  to  commence 
these  also  with  small  letters  would  be  met  with  the  objection 
that  a  loss  of  clearness  would  be  entailed.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  cases  in  which  ambiguity  between  a  common  and  proper 
noun  might  ensue  would  be  exceedingly  few ;  the  occasional  in¬ 
convenience  so  caused  would  be  more  than  compensated  for  by 
increased  simplicity  of  writing  and  printing.  Every  child 
would  learn  its  letters  in  little  more  than  half  the  time  that  it 
requires  now.  The  printer  would  be  able  to  operate  with  half 


THE  SPREAD  OF  THE  ALPHABET 


283 


as  many  characters,  and  typewriting  machines  could  dispense 
with  a  shift  key.  French  and  Spanish  designate  proper  adjec¬ 
tives  without  capitals  and  encounter  no  misunderstanding,  and 
ail  English  telegrams  are  sent  in  a  code  that  makes  no  distinc¬ 
tion.  When  we  read  the  newspaper  in  the  morning  and  think 
that  the  mixture  of  capital  and  small  letters  is  necessary  for 
our  easy  comprehension  of  the  page,  we  forget  that  this  same 
news  came  over  the  wire  without  capitals. 

143.  Conservatism  and  Rationalization 

The  fact  is  that  we  have  become  so  habituated  to  the  existing 
method  that  a  departure  from  it  might  temporarily  be  a  bit 
disconcerting.  Consequently  we  rationalize  our  cumbersome 
habit,  taking  for  granted  or  explaining  that  this  custom  is  in¬ 
trinsically  and  logically  best;  although  a  moments  objective 
reflection  suffices  to  show  that  the  system  we  are  so  addicted 
to  costs  each  of  us,  and  will  cost  the  next  generation,  time, 
energy,  and  money  without  bringing  substantial  compensation. 

It  is  true  that  this  waste  is  distributed  through  our  lives  in 
small  driblets,  and  therefore  is  something  that  can  be  borne 
without  seeming  inconvenience.  Civilization  undoubtedly  can 
continue  to  thrive  even  while  it  adheres  to  the  antiquated  and 
jumbling  method  of  mixing  two  kinds  of  letters  where  one  is 
sufficient.  Yet  the  practice  illustrates  the  principle  that  the 
most  civilized  as  the  most  savage  nations  assert  and  believe  that 
they  adhere  to  their  institutions  after  an  impartial  considera¬ 
tion  of  all  alternatives  and  in  full  exercise  of  wisdom,  whereas 
analysis  regularly  reveals  them  as  astonishingly  resistive  to 
alteration  whether  for  better  or  worse. 

If  our  capital  letters  had  been  purposely  superadded  to  the 
small  ones  as  a  means  of  distinguishing  certain  kinds  of  words, 
a  modern  claim  that  they  were  needed  for  this  purpose  could 
perhaps  be  accepted.  But  since  the  history  of  the  alphabet  shows 
that  the  capital  letters  are  the  earlier  ones,  that  the  small  letters 
were  for  centuries  used  alone,  and  that  systems  of  writing  have 
operated  and  operate  without  the  distinction,  it  is  clear  that 
utility  cannot  be  the  true  motive.  The  employment  of  capital 
letters  as  initials  originated  in  a  desire  for  ornamentation.  It 


284 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


is  an  embroidery,  the  result  of  a  play  of  the  aesthetic  sense.  It 
is  the  use  of  capitals  that  has  caused  the  false  sense  of  their 
need,  not  necessity  that  has  led  to  their  use. 

144.  Gothic 

Another  exemplification  of  how  tenaciously  men  cling  to  the 
accustomed  at  the  expense  of  efficiency,  is  provided  by  the 
*  ‘Black-Letter’7  or  “  Gothic”  alphabet  used  in  Germany  and 
Scandinavia.  This  is  nothing  but  the  Roman  letters  as  elabo¬ 
rated  by  the  manuscript-copying  monks  of  northern  Europe 
toward  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages,  when  a  book  was  as  much 
a  work  of  art  as  a  volume  of  reading  matter.  The  sharp  angles, 
double  connecting  strokes,  goose-quill  flourishes,  and  other  in¬ 
crements  of  the  Gothic  letters  undoubtedly  possess  a  decorative 
effect,  although  an  over-elaborate  one.  They  were  evolved  in  a 
period  when  a  copyist  cheerfully  lettered  for  a  year  in  pro¬ 
ducing  a  volume,  and  the  lord  or  bishop  into  whose  hands  it 
passed  was  as  likely  to  turn  the  leaves  in  admiration  of  the 
black  and  red  characters  as  to  spend  time  in  reading  them. 

When  printing  was  introduced,  the  first  types  were  the  intri¬ 
cate  and  angular  Gothic  ones  customary  in  Germany.  The 
Italians,  who  had  always  been  half-hearted  about  the  Gothic 
forms,  soon  revolted.  Under  the  influence  of  the  Renaissance 
and  its  renewed  inspiration  from  classical  antiquity,  they  re¬ 
verted  as  far  as  possible  to  the  ancient  shapes  of  the  characters. 
Even  the  mediaeval  small  letters  were  simplified  and  rounded  as 
much  as  possible  to  bring  them  into  accord  with  the  old  Roman 
style.  From  Italy  these  types  spread  to  France  and  most  other 
European  countries,  including  England,  which  for  the  first 
fifty  years  had  printed  in  Black-Letter.  Only  in  north  central 
Europe  did  the  Gothic  forms  continue  to  prevail,  although  even 
there  all  scientific  books  have  for  some  time  been  printed  in  the 
Roman  alphabet.  Yet  Germans  sometimes  complain  of  the 
“difficulty”  of  the  Roman  letters,  and  books  intended  for 
popular  sale,  and  newspapers,  go  into  Gothic.  There  can  be 
little  doubt  that  in  time  the  Roman  letters  will  dispossess  the 
Gothic  ones  in  Germany  and  Scandinavia  except  for  ornamental 
display  heads.  But  the  established  ways  die  hard ;  Gothic  let- 


Fig.  30.  The  spread  of  alphabetic  writing.  Course  of  Occidental  alphabets  in  dotted  lines;  West  Asiatic,  continuous  lines;  Indie,  broken 
lines.  The  numbers  stand  for  centuries:  with  hollow  circles,  before  Christ;  with  solid  circles,  after  Christ.  Crossed  circle,  point  of  origin, 
Phoenicia,  11th  century  B.C.  Abbreviations:  Aram,  Aramaean;  B1  L,  Black  Letter  (Gothic);  Cyr,  Cyrillic;  Est,  Estrangelo;  Etr,  Etruscan; 
Go,  Gothic  (Runes) ;  Gr  Min,  Unc,  Greek  Minuscule,  Uncial;  In  Ba,  Indo-Bactrian  (Kharoshthi) ;  I,  Israelite;  R  Min,  Unc,  Roman  Minuscule, 
Uncial;  Sc,  Scandinavian  (Rune).  The  flow  was  often  back  and  fourth;  compare  the  2,000  year  development  from  Phoenician  to  Ionian  to 
Athens  to  Alexandria  (Uncial)  to  Constantinople  (Minuscule)  to  Russian;  or  from  Phoenician  northward  to  Aramaean,  thence  south  to  Na- 
bathean  and  Arabic,  east  to  Pehlevi  and  back  west  to  Armenian. 


-r  * 


•••  •  Jk  C.v. 


r-ss 


\ 


. 

\  \\ty  . 

-■'■"V  A 


' 

•.  >  ■  r  ••  v>.-' 


■  >• 


V.. 


. 


■ 


■  •  •• 


I  • 


■ 


r~'  ■ 


/ 


.  .  \*  a  .  .»!■  -- 


. . . .  ..... 

.  •  '  '  •  •  :  .  <•  '  •  ‘  i  i 

•  •  .  '•  .i/  •••.:•  ■ 


THE  SPREAD  OF  THE  ALPHABET 


285 


ters  may  linger  on  as  the  “old-style”  calendar  with  its  eleven- 
day  belatedness  held  out  in  England  until  1752  and  in  Russia 
until  1917. 


145.  Hebrew  and  Arabic 

Only  a  small  part  of  the  history  of  the  alphabet  was  unfolded 
in  Europe,  where  the  seemingly  so  different  forms  of  writing 
that  have  been  discussed  are  after  all  only  fairly  close  variants 
of  the  early  Greek  letters.  In  Asia  the  alphabet  underwent 
more  profound  changes. 

The  chief  modern  Semitic  alphabets,  Hebrew  and  Arabic,  are 
considerably  more  altered  from  the  primitive  Semitic  or  Phoeni¬ 
cian  than  is  our  own  alphabet.  The  Hebrew  letters  were  slowly 
evolved,  during  the  first  ten  centuries  after  Christ,  under  in¬ 
fluences  which  have  turned  most  of  them  as  nearly  as  possible 
into  parts  of  squarish  boxes.  B  and  K,  M  and  S,  G  and  N,  H 
and  CH  and  T,  D  and  V  and  Z  and  R  are  shaped  as  if  with 
intent  to  look  alike  rather  than  different.  Arabic,  on  the  other 
hand,  runs  wholly  to  curves :  circles,  segments  of  circles,  and 
round  flourishes ;  and  several  of  its  letters  have  become  iden¬ 
tical  except  for  diacritical  marks.  If  we  put  side  by  side  the 
corresponding  primitive  Semitic,  the  modern  English,  the  He¬ 
brew,  and  the  Arabic  letters,  it  is  at  once  apparent  that  in  most 
cases  English  observes  most  faithfully  the  3,000-years  old  forms. 
The  cause  of  these  changes  in  Hebrew  and  Arabic  is  in  the  main 
their  derivation  from  alphabets  descended  from  the  Aranuean 
alphabet,  a  form  of  script  that  grew  up  during  the  seventh  cen¬ 
tury  B.C.  in  Aram  to  the  northeast  of  Phoenicia.  The  Aramaeans 
were  Semites  and  therefore  kept  to  the  original  value  of  the 
Phoenician  letters  more  closely  than  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  On 
the  other  hand,  they  employed  the  alphabet  primarily  for  busi¬ 
ness  purposes  and  rapidly  altered  it  to  a  cursive  form,  in  which 
the  looped  or  enclosing  letters  like  A,  B,  D  were  opened  and 
the  way  was  cleared  for  a  series  of  increasing  modifications. 
Greek  and  Roman  writing,  on  the  other  hand,  were  at  first  used 
largely  in  monumental,  dedicatory,  legal,  and  religious  connec¬ 
tions,  and  preserved  clarity  of  form  at  the  expense  of  rapidity 
of  production. 


286 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


One  feature  of  primitive  Semitic,  most  Asiatic  alphabets  re¬ 
tained  for  a  long  time:  the  lack  of  vowel  signs.  In  the  end, 
however,  representation  of  the  vowels  proved  to  be  so  advan¬ 
tageous  that  it  was  introduced.  Yet  the  later  Semites  did  not 
follow  the  Greek  example  of  converting  dispensable  consonantal 
signs  into  vocalic  ones.  They  continued  to  recognize  consonant 
signs  as  the  only  real  letters,  and  then  added  smaller  marks,  or 
“points”  as  they  are  called,  for  the  vowels.  These  points  cor¬ 
respond  more  or  less  to  the  grave,  acute,  and  circumflex  accents 
which  French  uses  to  distinguish  vowel  shades  or  qualities,  e,  e, 
e,  and  e,  for  instance;  and  to  the  double  dot  or  dieeresis  which 
German  puts  upon  its  “umlaut”  vowels,  as  to  distinguish  a 
(  =  e)  from  a.  There  is  this  difference,  however:  whereas  Eu¬ 
ropean  points  are  reserved  for  minor  modifications,  Hebrew  and 
Arabic  have  no  other  means  of  representing  vowels  than  these 
points.  The  vowels  therefore  remain  definitely  subsidiary  to  the 
consonants;  to  the  extent  of  this  deficiency  Hebrew  has  adhered 
more  closely  to  the  primitive  Semitic  system  than  have  we. 

The  reason  for  this  difference  lies  probably  in  the  fact  that 
Hebrew  and  Arabic  have  retained  virtually  all  the  consonants 
of  ancient  Semitic.  Hence  the  breaths  and  stops  could  not  be 
dispensed  with,  or  at  least  such  was  the  feeling  of  their  speakers. 
In  the  Indo-European  languages,  these  sounds  being  wanting, 
the  transformation  of  the  superfluous  signs  into  the  letters 
needed  for  the  vowels  was  suggested  to  the  Greeks.  The  step 
perfecting  the  alphabet  was  therefore  taken  by  them  not  so  much 
because  they  possessed  originality  or  specially  fertile  imagina¬ 
tion,  as  because  of  the  accident  that  their  speech  consisted  of 
sounds  considerably  different  from  those  of  Semitic.  Perhaps 
the  Greeks  once  complained  of  the  unfitness  of  the  Phoenician 
alphabet,  and  adjusted  it  to  their  language  with  grumblings. 
Had  they  been  able  to  take  it  over  unmodified,  as  the  Hebrews 
and  Arabs  were  able,  it  is  probable  that  they  would  cheerfully 
have  done  so  with  all  its  imperfection.  In  that  case  they,  and 
after  them  the  Romans,  and  perhaps  we  too,  would  very  likely 
have  gone  on  writing  only  consonants  as  full  letters  and  repre¬ 
senting  vowels  by  the  Semitic  method  of  subsidiary  points.  In 
short,  even  so  enterprising  and  innovating  a  people  as  the  Greeks 
are  generally  reputed  to  have  been,  made  their  important  con- 


THE  SPREAD  OF  THE  ALPHABET 


287 


tribution  to  the  alphabet  less  because  they  wished  to  improve  it 
than  because  an  accident  of  phonetics  led  them  to  find  the 
means.  Such  are  the  marvels  of  human  invention  when  divested 
of  their  romantic  halo  and  examined  objectively. 

146.  The  Spread  Eastward  :  the  Writing  of  India 

The  diffusion  of  the  alphabet  eastward  from  its  point  of  origin 
was  even  greater  than  its  spread  through  Europe.  Most  of  this 
extension  in  Asia  is  comprised  in  two  great  streams.  One  of 
these  followed  the  southern  edge  of  the  continent.  This  was  a 
movement  that  began  some  centuries  before  Christ,  and  often 
followed  water  routes.  The  second  flow  was  mainly  post-Chris¬ 
tian  and  affected  chiefly  the  inland  peoples  of  central  Asia, 

India  is  the  country  of  most  importance  in  the  development 
of  the  south  Asiatic  alphabets.  The  forms  of  the  Sanskrit  letters 
show  that  they  and  the  subsequent  Hindu  alphabets  are  deriva¬ 
tives,  though  much  altered  ones,  from  the  primitive  Semitic 
writing.  Exactly  how  the  alphabet  was  carried  from  the  shore 
of  the  Mediterranean  to  India  has  not  been  fully  determined. 
By  some  the  prototype  of  the  principal  earliest  Indian  form  of 
writing  is  thought  to  have  been  the  alphabet  of  the  south  Arabian 
Sabaeans  or  Himyarites  of  five  or  six  hundred  years  B.C.  As 
the  Arabs  were  Semites,  and  as  there  was  a  certain  amount  of 
commerce  up  and  down  the  Red  Sea,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
even  these  rather  remote  and  backward  people  had  taken  up 
writing.  Between  south  Arabia  and  India  there  was  also  some 
intercourse,  so  that  a  further  transmission  by  sea  seems  possible 
enough.  Another  view  is  that  Hindu  traders  learned  and  im¬ 
ported  a  north  Semitic  alphabet  perhaps  as  early  as  during  the 
seventh  century,  from  which  the  Brahmi  was  made  over,  from 
which  in  turn  all  living  Indian  alphabets  are  derived.  Besides 
this  main  importation,  there  was  another,  from  Aramaean 
sources,  which  gave  rise  to  a  different  form  of  Hindu  writing, 
the  Kharoshthi  or  Indo-Bactrian  of  the  Punjab,  which  spread 
for  a  time  into  Turkistan  but  soon  died  out  in  India. 

147.  Syllabic  Tendencies 

One  trait  of  Indian  alphabets  leads  back  to  their  direct' 
Semitic  origin:  they  did  not  recognize  the  vowels.  The  Hindus 


288 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


speaking  Indo-Enropean  were  confronted  with  the  same  diffi¬ 
culty  as  the  Greeks  when  they  took  over  the  vowelless  Semitic 
alphabet.  But  they  solved  the  difficulty  in  their  own  way.  They 
assumed  that  a  consonantal  letter  stood  for  a  consonant  plus  a 
vowel.  Thus,  each  letter  was  really  the  sign  for  a  syllable.  The 
most  common  vowel  in  Sanskrit  being  A,  this  was  assumed 
as  being  inherent  in  the  consonant.  For  instance,  their  letter 
for  K  was  not  read  K,  but  KA.  This  meant  that  when  K  was 
to  be  read  merely  as  K,  it  had  to  be  specially  designated :  some¬ 
thing  had  to  be  done  to  take  away  the  vowel  A.  A  diacritical 
sign  was  added,  known  as  the  virama.  This  negative  sign  is  a 
“point”  just  as  much  as  the  positive  vowel  points  of  Hebrew; 
but  was  used  to  denote  exactly  the  opposite. 

There  are  of  course  other  vowels  than  A  in  Sanskrit.  These 
were  represented  by  diacritical  marks  analogous  to  the  virama. 
Thus  while  this  is  a  diagonal  stroke  below  the  consonant,  U  is 
represented  by  a  small  curve  below,  E  by  a  backward  curve 
above,  AI  by  two  such,  and  so  on. 

If  a  syllable  had  two  consonants  before  the  vowel,  these  were 
condensed  into  one,  the  essential  parts  of  each  being  combined 
into  a  more  complex  character.  This  was  much  as  if  we  were 
to  write  “try”  by  forcing  t  and  r  into  a  special  character  show¬ 
ing  the  cross  stroke  of  the  t  and  the  roll  or  hook  of  the  r,  and 
superposing  a  diaeresis  for  the  vowel.  This  process  reduced 
every  syllable  to  a  single  though  often  compound  letter.  If  the 
syllable  ended  in  a  consonant,  this  carried  over  as  the  begin¬ 
ning  of  the  next  syllable.  Even  the  end  consonant  of  a  word 
was  written  as  the  first  letter  of  the  next.  According  to  the 
Sanskrit  plan,  “the  dog  is  mad”  would  be  rendered  “the  do  gi 
sma  d-.” 

Obviously,  there  is  something  unnaturally  regular,  a  system¬ 
atic  artificiality,  about  such  a  scheme.  Love  of  system  cropped 
out  otherwise.  The  Hindus  devised  a  new  symbol — mainly  by 
differentiation  of  old  ones — for  every  sound  that  they  had  and 
Semitic  lacked.  Thus  they  doubled  the  number  of  their  letters. 
Then  they  rearranged  their  order  on  a  phonetic  and  logical 
basis.  All  sounds  made  against  the  back  palate  were  brought 
into  one  group ;  those  formed  against  the  fore-palate,  gums,  and 
teeth  came  after;  the  lip  sounds  last.  Within  each  of  the  groups 


THE  SPREAD  OF  THE  ALPHABET 


289 


the  letters  followed  one  another  in  a  fixed  order  according  to 
their  method  of  production — voiceless  stops  always  first,  nasals 
always  last. 

The  result  of  these  innovations  was  that  the  Hindu  alphabets 
diverged  much  more  from  the  Semitic  original  than  did  ours. 
This  perhaps  was  really  to  be  expected,  since  writing  entered 
India  by  long  leaps  between  peoples  that  were  not  in  intimate 
relations.  Also,  by  the  time  the  alphabet  first  reached  them,  the 
Hindus,  in  the  isolation  of  their  remote  peninsula,  had  already 
worked  out  an  advanced  and  unique  type  of  civilization.  This 
fact  must  have  predisposed  them  to  make  over  any  imported 
invention  in  conformity  with  their  established  habits. 

148.  The  East  Indies:  Philippine  Alphabets 

The  spread  of  the  Hindu  alphabet  within  India,  over  south¬ 
eastern  Asia,  and  into  the  East  Indian  archipelago,  cannot  be 
followed  here  because  it  is  an  intricate  story,  interwoven  with 
the  history  of  Brahmanism  and  Buddhism.  It  may  be  said  that 
in  general,  with  the  chief  exception  of  China,  Hindu  writing 
followed  where  Hindu  religion  penetrated.  But  it  may  be  illu¬ 
minating  to  touch  briefly  on  one  of  the  extensions. 

In  the  early  centuries  after  Christ,  Hindus  began  to  reach 
the  East  Indies,  especially  Sumatra  and  Java,  Here  they  estab¬ 
lished  principalities  or  kingdoms  and  their  religion.  Many  arts 
were  also  imported  by  them,  such  as  iron  working,  batik  dyeing, 
sculpture,  drama,  and  writing.  From  perhaps  the  sixth  to  the 
fifteenth  centuries,  the  Malaysian  population  of  Java  lived  under 
a  heavy  layer  of  Hindu  culture  (§  104,  126,  262),  and  literacy 
evidently  became  fairly  widespread.  Greater  or  less  portions 
of  this  culture  were  transported  to  the  other  East  Indian  islands 
and  with  them  went  writing.  In  the  Philippines,  the  Spaniards 
of  the  sixteenth  century  found  several  related  alphabets,  one  to 
each  of  the  principal  nationalities,  which  seem  derived  from 
Bengal  some  eight  hundred  years  before. 

The  Malayan  languages  are  unusually  simple  in  their  array 
of  sounds.  Hence  the  greater  part  of  the  elaborate  Sanskrit 
alphabet  was  discarded  by  them.  But  the  salient  characteristics 
of  Sanskrit  writing  were  retained.  A  consonant  was  read  as 


290 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


consonant  pins  A.  Points  were  provided  if  the  consonant  was 
to  be  read  with  other  vowels.  Of  such  points,  the  Philippine 
alphabets  employed  only  two.  One,  put  above  the  consonant, 
served  indiscriminately  for  I  and  E,  the  other,  below,  for  U 
and  0.  The  position  of  the  points  connects  them  with  the  San¬ 
skrit  vowel  signs.  In  this  way  the  Philippine  languages  were 
adequately  rendered  with  a  set  of  about  twelve  consonantal 
letters,  three  for  the  independent  vowels,  and  two  vowel  points. 

At  the  time  of  the  Spanish  discovery,  the  native  Philippine 
alphabets  were  already  meeting  Arabic  writing,  which  had 
shortly  before  been  introduced  in  the  southern  islands  with 
Mohammedanism.  The  Spaniards  of  course  brought  the  Roman 
alphabet.  Under  this  double  competition  the  use  of  native  writ¬ 
ing  soon  began  to  decay.  The  most  advanced  of  the  Filipino 
nationalities,  such  as  the  Tagalog  and  Bisaya,  have  long  since 
given  up  their  old  letters.  Yet  it  has  recently  been  discovered 
that  two  varieties  of  the  native  writing  still  survive — both  of 
them  among  backward  tribes:  the  Tagbanua  of  Palawan  and 
the  Mangyan  of  Mindoro.  Here  in  the  jungle,  among  half 
clothed  savages  living  under  rude  thatches  and  without  firearms 
or  government,  the  remotest  descendants  of  the  ancient  Sanskrit 
alphabet  linger. 

Three  widely  different  descendants  of  the  primitive  Semitic 
alphabet  have  therefore  met  in  this  archipelago.  One,  begin¬ 
ning  its  journey  some  twenty-five  hundred  years  ago,  traveled 
via  Arabia  and  northern  India,  probably  reaching  the  Philip¬ 
pines  by  800  A.D.  The  second  evolved  in  the  Semitic  homeland, 
finally  poured  out  of  northern  Arabia  with  Mohammedanism, 
was  carried  across  India  to  the  Malay  Peninsula,  and  thence 
leaped  across  the  sea  to  Borneo  and  the  Philippines  about 
1,400  A.D.  The  third  followed  the  longest  journey :  from  the 
Phoenicians  to  the  Greeks,  to  southern  Italy,  to  Rome,  to  Spain, 
and,  after  Columbus,  to  Mexico,  and  then  across  the  Pacific 
ocean  to  Manila  shortly  before  A.D.  1,600. 

149.  Northern  Asia:  the  Conflict  of  Systems  in  Korea 

The  history  of  the  central  and  north  Asiatic  alphabets  is 
complex.  It  may  be  summed  up  in  the  statement  that  Aramaean 


THE  SPREAD  OF  THE  ALPHABET 


291 


derivatives  of  the  primitive  Semitic  writing,  evolving  in  and 
near  Syria,  in  the  six  or  seven  centuries  before  the  birth  of 
Christ,  were  carried  east  and  northeast  from  one  people  to 
another.  One  of  the  modifications  of  Aramaean,  the  Estrangelo 
Syriac,  was  transported  by  a  sect  of  heretical  Christians,  the 
Nestorians,  to  the  Uigurs  and  Mongols,  from  whom  the  Manchus 
derived  their  system. 

The  farthest  extension  of  the  alphabet  in  Asia  was  to  the 
shores  of  the  Pacific  ocean,  in  Korea.  Korean  writing  however 
seems  to  be  derived  from  an  Indian  source,  through  Tibetan  or 
perhaps  Pali,  the  sacred  language  and  script  of  the  Southern 
branch  of  Buddhism;  hence  to  be  only  a  remote  collateral  rela¬ 
tive  of  the  neighboring  Manchu.  In  Korea,  the  spread  of  the 
alphabet  was  checked,  not  through  any  inherent  flaws  or  weak¬ 
ness  of  age,  but  by  the  competition  of  a  totally  different  system 
of  writing:  that  of  the  Chinese. 

Chinese  writing  is  not  alphabetic  at  all.  To  some  extent  it 
does  represent  sounds.  But  it  represents  syllables  or  words, 
not  letters;  and  it  represents  them  by  the  rebus  method.  The 
basis  of  Chinese  writing  is  ideographic.  It  is  therefore  a  modi¬ 
fied  form  of  picture  writing,  and  theoretically  pertains  to  an 
early  stage,  almost  comparable  in  principle  to  Egyptian  hiero¬ 
glyphs. 

In  a  conflict  between  such  a  primitive  system  and  a  truly 
alphabetic  one,  the  latter  should  of  course  prevail  on  account 
of  its  much  greater  efficiency  and  simplicity.  Actually,  however, 
the  Korean  alphabet  did  not  triumph  but  barely  managed  to 
maintain  an  existence  alongside  Chinese.  The  cause  was  a 
familiar  one:  the  tremendous  social  conservatism  of  the  human 
mind. 

When  the  native  alphabet  obtained  its  hold  in  Korea,  it  was 
confronted  by  an  overwhelming  Chinese  influence.  The  court, 
the  government,  the  institutions,  official  religion,  all  activities  of 
people  of  fashion  and  importance,  were  modeled  after  Chinese 
examples.  The  man  who  could  not  write  and  read  Chinese  char¬ 
acters  was  eliminated  from  polite  society  and  advancement. 
This  was  only  natural.  The  civilization  of  China  is  one  of  the 
most  ancient  and  greatest  in  the  world,  and  the  Koreans  were 
a  smaller  people  and  close  neighbors.  Western  civilization  was 


292 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


thousands  of  miles  away,  and  it  was  only  now  and  then  that  a 
driblet  from  it  penetrated  to  the  eastern  edge  of  Asia.  On  one 
side  then  stood  the  undoubted  practical  advantage  of  the 
alphabet  from  the  West;  on  the  other,  the  momentum  of  the 
whole  mass  of  Chinese  culture.  The  outcome  was  that  the  na¬ 
tionally  Korean  and  true  alphabet  became  something  that  shop¬ 
keepers  and  low  people  made  use  of ;  a  thing  easy  to  learn  and 
more  or  less  contemptible.  But  laws  and  documents  and  books 
of  higher  learning  were  written  in  Chinese  characters,  which 
innumerable  Koreans  for  generation  after  generation  spent 
years  of  their  lives  in  mastering. 

If  the  human  mind  were  really  rational,  if  it  operated  ration¬ 
ally  only  a  tenth' as  much  as  it  fondly  believes,  it  would  not  do 
awkward  and  difficult  things  after  a  simpler  and  more  effective 
means  to  the  same  end  had  been  put  within  its  reach,  as  was  the 
case  in  this  Korean  situation.  Another  principle  beyond  mere 
outright  inertia  is  operative  here.  This  is  the  tendency  of  cul¬ 
ture  elements  which  have  for  some  time  been  associated,  often 
only  by  accident,  to  form  an  interlocked  aggregation  or  “  com¬ 
plex.”  Once  such  a  complex  or  cluster  has  acquired  a  certain 
coherence,  it  survives  with  a  tenacity  independent  of  the  degree 
of  inherent  or  logical  connection  between  its  elements.  The  fact 
that  ideographs  were  associated  with  Chinese  religion,  litera¬ 
ture,  and  institutions,  constituted  them  part  of  what  may  be 
called  the  Chinese  complex.  The  mass  of  this  Chinese  complex 
far  overbalanced  the  slight  and  scattering  Western  influences. 
The  alphabet  drifted  into  Korea  as  an  isolated  fragment,  and 
was  promptly  borne  down  by  the  weight  of  the  elaborate  and 
closely  knit  culture  aggregate  of  Chinese  origin.  This  brute 
fact,  and  not  any  superior  reasonableness  or  intrinsic  merit  of 
one  system  or  the  other,  determined  the  issue  between  them. 

In  the  same  way  the  il  complex  ”  that  we  know  as  Western 
civilization — Christianity  and  collars,  science  and  picture  films, 
factory  labor  and  democracy,  fine  and  base  all  tangled  together 
— is  to-day  crushing  the  breath  out  of  ancient  and  exotic  cul¬ 
tures.  We  like  to  call  the  process  “ Progress’ ’  because  that  is 
more  comforting  than  to  view  it  as  the  rolling  of  a  fate  beyond 
our  control. 


CHAPTER  XII 


THE  GROWTH  OF  A  PRIMITIVE  RELIGION 

150.  Regional  variation  of  culture. — 151.  Plains,  Southwest,  Northwest 
areas. — 152.  California  and  its  sub-areas.- — 153.  The  shaping  of  a  problem. 
— 154.  Girls’  Adolescence  Rite.- — 155.  The  First  Period. — 156.  The  Second 
Period:  Mourning  Anniversary  and  First-salmon  rite. — 157.  Era  of  re¬ 
gional  differentiation. — 158.  Third  and  Fourth  Periods  in  Central  Cali¬ 
fornia:  Kuksu  and  Hesi. — 159.  Third  and  Fourth  Periods  in  Southern 
California:  Jimsonweed  and  Chungichnish. — 160.  Third  and  Fourth  Periods 
on  the  Lower  Colorado:  Dream  Singing. — 161.  Northwestern  California: 
world-renewal  and  wealth  display. — 162.  Summary  of  religious  develop¬ 
ment. — 163.  Other  phases  of  culture. — 164.  Outline  of  the  culture  history 
of  California. — 165.  The  question  of  dating. — 166.  The  evidence  of  archae- 
ology. — 167.  Age  of  the  shellmounds. — 168.  General  serviceability  of  the 
method. 


150.  Regional  Variation  of  Culture 

As  one  first  becomes  acquainted  with  a  totally  strange  people 
spread  over  a  large  area,  such  as  the  Indians  of  North  America, 
they  are  likely  to  seem  rather  uniform.  The  distinctions  between 
individual  and  individual,  and  even  the  greater  distinctions 
between  one  group  and  another,  become  buried  under  the  over¬ 
whelming  mass-effect  of  their  difference  from  ourselves.  Grow¬ 
ing  familiarity,  however,  renders  individual,  local,  and  tribal 
peculiarities  plainer.  The  specialist,  finally,  comes  to  concern 
himself  with  particular  traits  until  the  peculiarities  occupy  more 
of  his  attention  than  the  uniformities.  His  danger  always  is  to 
let  himself  get  into  the  habit  of  taking  sweeping  similarities  so 
much  for  granted  that  he  ends  by  underemphasizing  or  forget¬ 
ting  them.  At  the  same  time  his  business  is  to  add  something 
new  to  human  understanding — facts  at  any  rate,  interpretation 
if  possible.  Generalities  are  likely  to  be  pretty  widely  known, 
and  progress,  new  formulations,  therefore  depend  ultimately  on 
mastery  of  detail.  This  means  that  if  a  scientist  is  to  contribute 
anything  to  the  world’s  comprehension,  is  to  add  a  new  mental 
tool  to  its  chest,  he  must  devote  himself  to  specific  traits,  to  dis¬ 
criminations  of  fine  detail.  It  is  only  by  finding  new  trees  that 

he  helps  to  make  the  woods  larger. 

293 


294 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


If  then  we  approach  a  race  like  the  American  Indians  with 
the  scientist’s  or  student’s  purpose  of  discovering  something 
more  than  we  already  know,  we  quickly  find  that  institutions, 
customs,  and  utensils,  in  other  words  the  cultures,  vary  from 
tribe  to  tribe.  When  one  compares  tribes  living  so  far  apart  as 
to  be  no  longer  united  in  intercourse,  nor  even  by  communica¬ 
tion  with  common  intermediaries,  there  is  scarcely  a  trait  in 
which  their  cultures  are  wholly  identical.  Within  a  limited  dis¬ 
trict  a  fair  degree  of  uniformity  is  found  to  prevail.  Yet  when 
the  boundaries  of  such  an  area  are  crossed,  a  new  type  of  cul¬ 
ture  begins  to  be  encountered,  which  again  holds  with  local 
variations  until  a  third  district  is  entered. 

151.  Plains,  Southwest,  Northwest  Areas 

For  instance,  the  Indians  of  the  Plains  between  the  Rocky 
mountains  and  the  Mississippi  river  form  a  comparative  unit. 
They  are  all  warlike,  the  great  aim  in  life  of  every  man  in  these 
tribes  being  attainment  of  military  glory.  All  the  Plains  tribes 
subsisted  to  a  large  extent  on  buffalo,  lived  in  tipis — tents 
made  of  buffalo  skins — and  boiled  their  food  with  hot  stones  in 
buffalo  rawhide.  Nearly  all  of  them  performed  a  four  days’ 
religious  ceremony  known  as  the  Sun  Dance,  of  which  one  of  the 
outstanding  acts  was  fasting  and  sometimes  self-torture  inflicted 
with  skewers  drawn  through  the  skin  and  torn  out.  These  cus¬ 
toms  were  common  to  the  Sioux,  Cheyenne,  Arapaho,  Crow, 
Blackfeet,  Assiniboine,  Omaha,  Kiowa,  Comanche,  and  other 
tribes. 

As  one  passes  from  this  region  to  the  mountainous  plateau 
which  constitutes  the  present  New  Mexico  and  Arizona — the 
Southwest  of  the  United  States — one  encounters  a  series  of 
tribes  often  inhabiting  stone  houses,  subsisting  by  agriculture, 
cooking  in  earthenware  pots,  little  given  to  fighting,  according 
authority  to  priests  rather  than  warriors,  erecting  altars,  and 
performing  masked  dances  representing  divinities.  This  South¬ 
western  culture,  its  internal  relations,  and  the  tribes  participat¬ 
ing  in  it,  have  already  been  discussed  in  another  connection 
(§87). 

If,  however,  on  leaving  the  Plains  one  turns  northwest  to  the 


THE  GROWTH  OF  A  PRIMITIVE  RELIGION  295 


shores  of  British  Columbia  and  southern  Alaska,  a  third  dis¬ 
tinctive  type  of  native  civilization  appears.  Among  these  North¬ 
western  or  North  Pacific  Coast  tribes,  such  as  the  Tlingit,  Haida, 
Tsimshian,  Kwakiutl,  Nutka,  and  Salish,  the  priest  as  well  as 
the  warrior  bowed  before  the  rich  man,  an  elaborate  set  of  rules 
and  honors  separating  the  wealthy  high-born  from  the  poor  and 
lowly.  Aristocracy,  commoners,  and  slaves  made  up  distinct 
strata  of  society  in  this  region.  Public  rituals  were  occasions 
for  the  ostentation  of  wealth.  Houses  were  carpentered  of  wood. 
Cooking  was  done  in  boxes.  The  prevalent  food  was  fish. 

The  significant  thing  is  that  these  are  not  three  tribes,  but 
three  groups  each  consisting  of  a  number  of  politically  inde¬ 
pendent  tribes  spread  over  a  considerable  territory  and  evincing 
a  fairly  fundamental  similarity  of  customs  and  institutions.  We 
are  confronting  three  kinds  of  culture,  each  super-tribal  in 
range  and  attached  to  a  certain  area.  These  areas  have  some¬ 
times  been  called  “ethnographic  provinces”;  they  are  generally 
known  as  “culture-areas.”  Of  such  areas  ten  are  generally 
recognized  on  the  North  American  continent.  These  are  the 
Plains,  Southwest,  North  Pacific  Coast,  Mackenzie-Yukon,  Arctic, 
Plateau,  California,  Northeast,  Southeast,  and  Mexico.1 

Obviously  we  have  here  a  classification  comparable  to  that 

which  the  naturalist  makes  of  animals.  As  the  zoologist  divides 

the  vertebrate  animals  into  mammals,  birds,  reptiles,  amphibians, 

and  fishes,  so  the  anthropologist  divides  the  generic  North 

American  Indian  culture  into  the  cultures  of  these  ten  areas. 

The  naturalist  however  cannot  stop  with  a  group  as  inclusive  as 

the  mammals,  and  goes  on  to  subdivide  them  into  orders,  such 

as  the  rodents,  carnivores,  ungulates,  and  the  like.  Each  of 

these  again  he  goes  on  splitting  into  families,  genera,  and  finally 

species.  The  species  correspond  to  the  smallest  groups  in  human 

society,  namely  the  tribes  or  nations.  Parallel  to  the  family  or 

order  which  the  naturalist  finds  between  a  particular  species  and 

* 

the  great  class  of  mammals,  one  may  therefore  expect  to  dis¬ 
cover  groups  intermediate  between  particular  tribes  and  the 
large  culture-areas.  Such  intermediate  groups  would  consist  of 
clusters  of  tribes  constituting  fractions  of  a  culture-area :  clearly 

1  These  areas  are  discussed  further  in  the  next  chapter,  especially  in 
§  174. 


296 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


pertaining  to  this  area,  but  yet  somewhat  set  off  from  other 
clusters  within  the  same  area — like  the  Pueblos  and  Navaho 
within  the  Southwest,  as  already  described  (§87).  We  may 
call  such  clusters  or  fractions  sub-culture-areas,  and  must  con¬ 
cern  ourselves  with  them  if  we  desire  to  deepen  our  understand¬ 
ing  of  aboriginal  American  civilization. 

For  the  sake  of  simplicity,  it  will  he  well  to  select  a  limited 
portion  of  North  America,  instead  of  wrestling  with  the  intrica¬ 
cies  of  the  continent  as  a  whole,  in  an  endeavor  to  see  how  its 
culture-areas  and  sub-culture-areas  reveal  themselves  in  detail 
and  help  to  throw  light  on  native  history.  California  will  serve 
as  a  type  example. 

152.  California  and  Its  Sub-areas 

Modern  state  boundaries  frequently  do  not  coincide  with 
either  ethnic  lines  of  division  or  with  natural  physiographic 
areas,  especially  when  political  units  are  created  by  legislative 
enactment,  as  has  been  the  case  with  most  of  the  United  States. 
This  partial  discrepancy  holds  for  California.  The  native  cul¬ 
ture  most  distinctive  of  California  cpvered  only  the  middle  two- 
thirds  of  the  present  state,  but  took  in  Nevada  and  much  of  the 
Great  Basin  (Fig.  31). 

Northernmost  California,  especially  along  the  ocean,  was  in¬ 
habited  by  Indians  that  affiliated  with  the  tribes  of  the  North 
Pacific  coast.  One  after  another  their  customs  and  arts  prove 
on  examination  to  be  related  to  the  customs  and  arts  of  the  coast 
of  British  Columbia,  and  to  differ  more  or  less  from  the  cor¬ 
responding  practices  of  the  Central  California  Indians.  Here 
then  we  have  a  second  cultural  type,  that  of  Northwestern  Cali¬ 
fornia,  which  constitutes  a  subdivision  of  the  North  Pacific 
Coast  culture-area. 

The  southern  California  Indians  link  with  the  Indians  of 
the  adjoining  states  of  Arizona  and  New  Mexico.  In  short,  this 
part  of  California  forms  part  of  the  Southwest  culture-area. 
The  southern  California  tribes  are  however  not  wholly  uniform 
among  themselves,  but  constitute  two  groups :  those  of  the 
islands,  coast,  and  mountains,  and  those  of  the  Colorado  river. 
These  are  distinguished  primarily  by  the  fact  that  only  the  river 


Fig.  31.  Sub-culture-areas  of  native  California,  as  part  of  the  major 
culture-areas  of  western  North  America.  A ,  culture  of  Northwestern 
California;  B,  Central  California;  C,  Southern  California;  D,  Lower 
Colorado  River. 


298 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


tribes  practised  agriculture.  We  may  designate  these  two  divi¬ 
sions  as  “Southern  California”  proper  and  “Lower  Colorado 
River.  ’  ’ 

The  table  on  the  opposite  page  gives  a  brief  characterization 
of  these  four  sub-culture-areas. 

153.  The  Shaping  of  a  Problem 

So  far  we  have  been  discriminating,  that  is,  looking  for 
characteristic  differences.  On  the  other  hand,  there  has  always 
existed  a  consensus  of  impression,  among  experienced  as  well  as 
hasty  observers,  that  a  certain  likeness  runs  through  the  culture 
of  most  the  tribes  of  California,  northern,  central,  and  southern. 
With  scarcely  an  exception  they  were  unwarlike;  nearly  all  of 
them  made  excellent  baskets,  but  were  deficient  in  wood-working. 
Obviously  it  is  necessary  to  reconcile  these  uniformities  with  the 
peculiarities  that  distinguish  the  four  regional  types  or  sub¬ 
culture-areas,  as  well  as  to  account  for  the  peculiarities. 

Let  us  simplify  the  problem  by  considering  only  one  aspect 
of  the  four  native  cultures  instead  of  the  whole  cultures.  In 
this  way  there  will  be  more  likelihood  of  making  a  substantial 
beginning;  any  results  obtained  from  the  example  can  be  sub¬ 
sequently  checked  from  other  aspects  of  the  cultures  to  see  if 
the  findings  are  broadly  representative.  Further,  let  us  arrange 
the  items  of  information  that  are  available  on  this  one  aspect 
of  culture,  not  haphazardly,  nor  mechanically  as  under  an 
alphabetic  classification,  nor  in  the  sequence  in  which  authors 
have  published  their  observations,  but  naturally,  or  according 
to  some  principle  that  is  likely  to  work  out  into  an  interpreta¬ 
tion.  Since  part  of  the  problem  is  the  relation  of  the  uniform 
features  to  the  peculiar  ones,  a  promising  order  will  be  to  put 
at  one  end  of  the  line  or  series  of  data  the  most  universal  fea¬ 
tures,  and  at  the  other  the  most  particular  or  localized  ones. 

Let  us  select  religion  as  that  part  of  native  culture  to  be 
examined,  and  limit  this  still  farther  by  eliminating  from  con¬ 
sideration,  for  the  time  being,  all  forms  of  religion  except  public 
rituals,  which  among  Indians  are  frequently  accompanied  or 
signalized  by  sacred  dances.  We  may  forget,  for  the  moment, 
private  rites,  individual  sacrifices,  superstitions  and  taboos, 


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300 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


medicine  men,  myths,  and  the  like,  and  direct  attention  to 
dances  made  by  groups  of  people,  or  the  obvious  equivalents  of 
such  dances,  and  ritual  acts  definitely  associated  with  the  dances 
or  the  common  weal. 

Choice  of  this  phase  of  native  culture  is  not  quite  random; 
ritual  ordinarily  is  rather  freer  from  the  complications  caused 
by  natural  environment  than  most  other  institutions  and  cus¬ 
toms.  Had  industrial  arts,  for  instance,  been  selected  as  the 
point  of  attack,  it  might  he  imagined  that  certain  tribes  made 
pottery,  and  others  did  not,  because  of  the  presence  or  absence 
of  suitable  clay  in  their  respective  habitats ;  or  perhaps  that  a 
particular  weave  of  basketry  occurred  universally  because  this 
weave  followed  more  or  less  directly  from  the  physical  proper¬ 
ties  of  some  plant  material  that  abounded  everywhere  in  the 
state.  On  the  other  hand,  when  tribes  do  or  do  not  make  dances 
in  honor  of  their  divinities,  or  when  they  do  or  do  not  practise 
an  elaborate  mourning  for  their  dead,  these  are  customs  into 
which  the  influence  of  natural  environment  can  scarcely  enter, 
since  all  peoples  believe  in  spirits  and  suffer  the  loss  of  relatives. 

154.  Girls  ’  Adolescence  Rite 

When,  then,  we  review  the  religious  dances  of  the  California 
tribes  en  masse,  we  find  that  there  are  only  two  which  come  near 
to  being  universal.  One  of  these  is  the  Victory  Dance  held  over 
the  head  or  scalp  of  a  slain  enemy;  the  other  is  an  Adolescence 
Rite  performed  for  girls  at  puberty.  The  latter  is  the  more 
profitable  to  consider.  It  is  the  more  widely  spread,  having  been 
performed  in  every  district  of  California,  and  by  almost  every 
tribe.  The  Victory  Dance  wTas  not  made  by  the  Indians  of 
northern  California,  who  substituted  for  it  a  war  incitement 
dance  of  different  character.  Further,  a  tribe  having  the  tradi¬ 
tion  of  the  Victory  Dance  might  often  be  at  peace  and  go  for 
a  generation  or  two  without  the  celebration.  But  a  ceremony 
which  it  was  thought  necessary  to  make  for  each  girl  at  puberty 
was  obviously  due  to  be  performed  every  few  years  even  among 
a  small  group. 

There  are  many  local  variations  in  the  Californian  Adoles¬ 
cence  Rite,  but  certain  of  its  features  emerge  with  constancy. 


THE  GROWTH  OF  A  PRIMITIVE  RELIGION  301 


These  traits  are  based  on  the  belief  that  the  girl  who  is  at  this 
moment  passing  from  childhood  to  maturity  must  be  undergoing 
a  critical  transition.  The  occasion  was  considered  critical  not 
only  for  her  but  for  the  community,  and,  since  the  Indians’ 
outlook  was  limited,  for  the  whole  of  their  little  world.  A  girl 
who  at  this  period  did  not  show  fortitude  to  hardship  would 
be  forever  weak  and  complaining:  therefore  she  fasted.  If  she 
carried  wood  and  water  industriously,  she  would  remain  a  good 
worker  all  her  life,  whereas  if  she  defaulted,  she  would  grow 
up  a  lazy  woman.  So  crucial,  in  fact,  was  this  moment,  that 
she  was  thought  extremely  potent  upon  her  surroundings,  as 
constituting  a  latent  danger.  If  she  looked  abroad  upon  the 
world,  oak  trees  might  become  barren  and  next  year’s  crop  of 
acorns  fail,  or  the  salmon  refuse  to  ascend  the  river.  Among 
many  tribes,  therefore,  the  maturing  girl  was  covered  with  a 
blanket,  set  under  a  large  basket,  or  made  to  wear  a  visor  of 
feathers  over  her  eyes.  Others  had  her  throw  her  hair  forward 
and  keep  her  head  bowed.  She  was  given  the  benefit  of  having 
ancient  religious  songs  sung  over  her,  and  dances  revolved 
around  her  night  after  night.  Certain  additional  developments 
of  the  ceremony  were  locally  restricted.  Thus  it  was  only  in  the 
south  that  the  girl  was  put  into  a  pit  and  baked  in  hot  sand. 
But  a  number  of  specific  features  occur  from  the  north  to  the 
south  end  of  the  state.  Among  these  are  the  following  rules. 
The  girl  must  not  eat  meat,  fat,  or  salt.  She  must  not  scratch 
her  head  with  her  fingers,  but  use  a  stick  or  bone  implement 
made  for  the  purpose.  She  must  not  look  at  people ;  and  she 
should  be  sung  over. 

It  should  be  added  that  most  of  these  traits  of  the  Girls’  Rite 
recur  among  the  tribes  of  a  much  larger  area  than  California, 
including  those  of  Nevada  and  the  Great  Basin  and  the  Pacific 
coast  for  a  long  distance  north.  This  institution,  then,  is  re¬ 
markably  widespread  and  has  preserved  nearly  the  same  fun¬ 
damental  features  wherever  it  is  found. 

155.  The  First  Period 

What  can  be  inferred  from  this  uniformity  and  broad  diffu¬ 
sion?  It  seems  fair  to  try  the  presumptive  conclusion  of  an- 


302 


ANTHROPOLOG ' 


tiquity.  A  continent  is  likely  to  be  older  than  an  island.  A 
family  of  animals  has  probably  existed  longer  than  a  single 
species.  A  world-wide  custom  normally  is  more  ancient  than 
one  that  is  confined  to  a  narrow  locality.  If  it  spread  from  one 
people  to  another,  this  diffusion  over  the  whole  earth  would 
usually  require  a  long  time.  If  on  the  other  hand  such  a  cus¬ 
tom  had  originated  separately  among  each  people,  its  very  uni¬ 
versality  would  indicate  it  as  the  response  to  a  deep  and  primary 
need,  and  such  a  need  would  presumably  manifest  itself  early 
in  the  history  of  the  race. 

It  is  true  that  one  may  not  place  too  positive  a  reliance  on 
evidence  of  this  sort.  The  history  of  civilization  furnishes  some 
contrary  examples.  Thus  the  Persian  fire-worshiping  religion 
is  older  than  Christianity,  yet  is  now  confined  to  the  Parsees  of 
Bombay  and  to  one  or  two  small  groups  in  Persia.  The  use  of 
tobacco  has  spread  over  the  eastern  hemisphere  in  four  cen¬ 
turies.  Still,  such  cases  are  exceptional;  and  in  the  absence  of 
specific  contrary  considerations,  heavy  weight  must  be  given  to 
wideness  of  occurrence  in  rating  antiquity. 

If  the  Girls’  Rite  were  identical  among  all  the  tribes  that 
practise  it,  there  might  be  warrant  for  the  conclusion  that  it  had 
originated  only  a  few  centuries  ago  but  had  for  some  reason  been 
carried  from  one  tribe  to  another  with  such  unusual  rapidity  as 
not  to  have  been  subjected  to  the  alterations  of  time.  Yet  the 
fact  that  the  essential  uniformity  of  the  rite  is  overlaid  by  so 
much  local  diversity — as  for  instance  the  baking  custom  re¬ 
stricted  to  southern  California — indicates  the  unlikelihood  of 
such  a  rapid  and  late  diffusion.  The  ceremony  is  much  in  the 
status  of  Christianity,  which,  in  the  course  of  its  long  history, 
has  also  become  broken  into  national  varieties  or  sects,  all  of 
which  however  remain  Christian. 

The  facts  then  warrant  this  tentative  conclusion:  that  the 
Girls’  Rite  is  representative  of  the  oldest  stratum  of  religion 
that  can  be  traced  among  the  Indians  of  California — their 
“First  Period.”  The  Victory  Dance  would  presumably  be  of 
nearly  but  not  quite  the  same  antiquity. 


THE  GROWTH  OF  A  PRIMITIVE  RELIGION  303 


156.  The  Second  Period:  Mourning  Anniversary  and 

First-salmon  Rite 

Pursuing  the  same  method  farther,  let  us  look  for  rituals  that 
are  less  widely  spread  than  these  but  yet  not  confined  to  small 
districts.  The  outstanding  one  in  this  class  is  the  Mourning 
Anniversary.  This  is  a  custom  of  bewailing  each  year,  or  at 
intervals  of  a  few  years,  those  members  of  the  tribe  who  have 
died  since  the  last  performance,  and  the  burning  of  large  quan¬ 
tities  of  wealth — shell  money,  baskets,  and  the  like — in  their 
memory.  Each  family  offers  for  its  own  dead,  but  people  of 
special  consideration  are  honored  by  having  images  made  of 
them  and  consumed  with  the  property.  Until  the  anniversary 
has  been  performed,  the  relatives  of  the  dead  remain  mourners. 
After  it,  they  are  free  to  resume  normal  enjoyment  of  life ;  and 
the  name  of  the  deceased,  which  until  then  has  been  strictly 
taboo,  may  now  be  bestowed  on  a  baby  in  the  family. 

The  Mourning  Anniversary  as  here  outlined  is  practised  with 
little  variation,  less  than  the  Girls’  Rite  shows,  throughout 
southern  California  and  a  great  part  of  central  California,  espe¬ 
cially  the  Sierra  Nevada  district.  Its  distribution  thus  covers 
more  than  half  of  the  state.  But  it  has  not  spread  elsewhere 
except  to  a  small  area  in  southern  Nevada  and  western  Arizona. 

In  northern  California  the  Mourning  Anniversary  is  lacking. 
It  is  not  that  the  Indians  here  fail  to  mourn  their  dead.  In 
fact  they  frequently  bewail  them  for  a  longer  time  than  most 
civilized  peoples  think  necessary.  They  may  bury  or  burn  some 
property  with  the  corpse.  But  they  do  not  practise  the  regular 
public  commemoration  of  the  southerly  tribes.  They  do  not 
assiduously  accumulate  wealth  for  months  or  years  in  order  to 
throw  it  into  a  communal  fire  at  the  end.  And  they  do  not 
make  images  of  their  dead.  In  fact,  they  would  be  shocked  at 
the  idea  as  indelicate,  if  not  impious.  Is  there  anything  in  this 
northern  part  of  California  that  takes  the  place  of  the  anni¬ 
versary  ? 

Not  as  a  psychological  equivalent ;  but  as  regards  distribution, 
there  is.  This  is  the  custom,  established  in  northern  California 
and  parts  of  Oregon,  for  a  leading  shaman  or  medicine-man  to 
conduct  a  ceremony  at  the  beginning  of  each  year’s  salmon  run. 


'304 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


Until  he  had  done  this,  no  one  fished  for  salmon  or  ate  them. 
If  any  got  caught,  they  were  carefully  returned  to  the  river. 
When  the  medicine-man  had  gone  through  his  secret  rites,  he 
caught  and  ate  the  first  fish  of  the  year.  After  this,  the  season 
was  open.  To  eat  salmon  no  longer  brought  illness  and  disaster, 
as  it  was  thought  it  would  a  few  days  earlier.  Moreover,  the 
prayers  or  formulas  recited  by  the  shaman  propitiated  the 
salmon  and  caused  them  to  run  abundantly,  so  that  every  one 
had  plenty.  There  is  clearly  a  communal  motive  in  the  rite, 
even  though  its  performance  was  entrusted  to  an  individual. 

The  one  specific  element  common  to  the  Mourning  Anniver¬ 
sary  and  this  First-salmon  Rite  is  their  connection  with  the 
natural  year,  the  cycle  of  the  seasons,  a  trait  necessarily  lack¬ 
ing  in  the  Girls’  Rite  with  its  intimately  personal  character. 
Because  of  this  common  feature;  because,  also,  neither  of  these 
two  rituals  is  as  widespread  as  the  Girls’  Rite  and  yet  between 
them  they  cover  the  whole  of  California  with  substantially 
mutual  exclusiveness,  it  seems  fair  to  assume  that  they  both 
originated  at  a  later  time  than  the  Girls’  Rite,  but  still  in  fairly 
remote  antiquity.  They  may  therefore  be  provisionally  assigned 
to  a  Second  Period  of  the  prehistory  of  California. 

157.  Era  of  Regional  Differentiation 

It  is  now  necessary  to  return  to  the  four  regional  divisions  or 
sub-culture-areas  of  the  modern  tribes  of  California.  Since  the 
Northwestern  one  affiliated  with  the  extensive  North  Pacific 
culture,  and  those  of  Southern  California  and  the  Colorado 
River  with  the  great  culture  of  the  Southwest,  many  of  their 
customs  must  have  originated  in  those  parts  of  these  two  culture- 
areas  which  lie  outside  of  California.  Even  if  the  northern  and 
southern  Californians  4 Gent”  as  well  as  “borrowed”  inventions 
and  institutions,  they  must  on  the  whole  have  received  or  learned 
or  imitated  more  in  the  interchange  than  they  imparted.  This 
is  clear  from  the  fact  that  the  Indians  of  British  Columbia  are 
more  advanced  in  their  manufacturing  ability,  richer  in  variety 
of  tools  and  utensils,  and  more  elaborate  in  their  organization 
of  society,  than  those  of  Northwestern  California ;  and  a  similar 
relation  of  superiority  and  priority  exists  between  the  Pueblos 


THE  GROWTH  OF  A  PRIMITIVE  RELIGION  305 


of  New  Mexico  and  Arizona  and  the  Southern  California  tribes 
(§87).  In  other  words,  a  stream  of  civilizational  influences  has 
evidently  run  from  southern  Alaska  and  British  Columbia 
southward  along  the  coast  as  far  as  Northwestern  California, 
and  another  from  the  town-dwelling  Pueblos  to  the  village- 
inhabiting  tribes  of  Southern  California,  in  much  the  same  way 
that  civilization  flowed  from  ancient  Babylonia  into  Palestine, 
from  Egypt  into  Crete,  from  Greece  to  Rome,  from  Rome  to 
Gaul  and  Britain,  from  western  Europe  to  the  Americas  after 
their  discovery,  and  from  the  Christian  to  the  non-Christian 
nations  of  to-day.  Somewhere  in  the  unraveling  of  the  pre¬ 
history  of  California  the  first  indications  of  these  streams  from 
the  outside  should  be  encountered. 

They  are  not  manifest  in  the  two  periods  which  have  so  far 
been  established.  The  distribution  of  the  Girls’  Rite  of  the 
First  Period  and  of  the  Mourning  Anniversary  and  First-salmon 
Rite  of  the  Second,  does  not  coincide  with  the  major  culture- 
areas  of  the  continent.  The  Southwest,  for  instance,  from  which 
the  modern  southern  Californians  have  received  so  much,  does 
not  possess  any  of  these  ceremonies.  The  Southwest  culture 
therefore  evidently  originated,  or  began  to  take  on  its  recent 
aspect,  or  at  least  to  influence  Southern  California,  chiefly  after 
the  two  periods  had  passed  by  in  which  these  ceremonies  became 
established  in  California.  The  Girls’  Rite,  to  be  sure,  extends 
up  the  Pacific  coast  into  Alaska.  Yet  it  is  more  widespread 
than  the  North  Pacific  Coast  culture,  since  this  has  its  southerly 
limit  in  Northwestern  California,  whereas  the  ceremony  is  uni¬ 
versal  as  far  as  to  the  southern  end  of  the  state,  besides  occur¬ 
ring  inland  throughout  the  Great  Basin  and  Plateau  regions. 
Being  more  widely  spread  than  the  Coast  culture,  the  Girls  ’  Rite 
is  presumptively  more  ancient. 

The  beginnings  of  the  four  modern  types  of  California  native 
culture  must  thus  evidently  be  looked  for  at  about  the  point 
now  reached  in  our  reconstruction.  At  first  there  was  a  single 
very  widespread  ceremony ;  then  two  less  widely  diffused  ones ; 
the  next  logical  step  in  development  would  have  been  the  growth 
of  a  still  larger  number  of  ceremonies  or  ritual  systems.  These, 
on  account  of  their  greater  recency,  and  perhaps  on  account  of 
conflicting  with  one  another,  would  have  spread  only  over  com- 


306 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


paratively  small  areas.  Let  ns  therefore  assume  that  to  this 
Third  Period  belonged  the  beginnings  of  the  Wealth-display 
dances  of  the  Northwestern  Indians  which  are  coupled  with  the 
idea  of  world  renovation  (table,  p.  299)  ;  the  so-called  Kuksu 
dances  made  among  the  Central  Californians  by  members  of 
a  secret  society  disguised  as  divinities;  the  Jimsonweed  rites 
of  the  Southern  tribes  who  use  this  narcotic  plant  as  a  mystical 
means  of  initiating  the  young  into  their  religious  society;  and 
the  series  of  long  singings  that  the  Colorado  River  tribes  are 
addicted  to  and  believe  they  have  miraculously  dreamed. 

Of  course,  the  idea  could  scarcely  be  entertained  that  these 
four  local  systems  sprang  into  existence  full-fledged.  They  are 
complicated  sets  of  rituals,  quite  different  from  the  simple  Girls’ 
Rite  and  Mourning  Anniversary.  They  must  have  grown  up 
gradually  from  more  meager  beginnings  and  have  been  a  con¬ 
siderable  time  reaching  their  present  elaboration.  It  would 
thus  seem  justifiable  to  add  not  only  one  but  two  further  periods 
of  religious  growth,  in  the  earlier  of  which — the  Third — these 
ceremonial  systems  of  the  historic  Indians  began  their  develop¬ 
ment,  whereas  in  the  later  or  Fourth  they  achieved  it. 

158.  Third  and  Fourth  Periods  in  Central  California: 

Kuksu  and  Hesi 

For  instance,  in  the  Central  California  sub-culture-area  a 
series  of  tribes  possess  a  society  to  which  young  men  are  ad¬ 
mitted  only  after  a  double  initiation  with  formal  teaching  by 
their  elders,  the  first  initiation  coming  in  boyhood,  the  second 
soon  after  puberty.  The  society  holds  great  four-day  dances 
in  large  earth-covered  houses.  Time  is  beaten  to  the  dance  and 
song  with  rattles  of  split  sticks,  and  stamped  with  the  feet  on  a 
great  log  drum.  The  dancers  wear  showy  feather  costumes 
which  disguise  them  to  the  uninitiated  women,  children,  and 
strangers,  who  take  them  to  be  spirits  of  old  that  have  come 
to  exhibit  themselves  for  the  good  of  the  people.  There  may  be 
as  many  as  twelve  divinities  represented  in  this  way,  each  with 
his  distinctive  name  and  dress.  One  of  the  most  prominent  of 
these  is  the  god  or  “first-man”  Kuksu,  the  founder  of  the  sacred 


THE  GROWTH  OF  A  PRIMITIVE  RELIGION  307 


rites,  after  whom  the  entire  system  has  been  named  the  “Kuksu 
Cult.  ’  ’ 

The  tribes  participating  in  the  Kuksu  Cult  are  the  Patwin, 
nearer  Maidu,  Porno,  Yuki,  Miwok,  and  several  others.  They 
occupy  an  area  which  may  be  described  as  the  heart  of  Cali¬ 
fornia:  namely,  the  districts  adjoining  the  lower  Sacramento 
and  San  Joaquin  rivers  and  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco  into 
which  the  two  streams  pour  the  drainage  of  the  great  interior 
valley  (Fig.  32). 

Beyond  the  Kuksu-dancing  tribes  there  are  others,  like  the 
farther  Maidu,  the  Wailaki,  and  some  of  the  Yokuts,  among 
whom  the  medicine-men  are  wont  to  gather  for  public  demon¬ 
stration  of  their  magical  prowess.  Thus,  they  assemble  for  a 
competition  of  “throwing”  sickness  into  one  another,  or  to 
charm  the  rattlesnakes  so  that  they  can  be  handled  and  that 
no  one  in  the  tribe  may  be  bitten  during  the  ensuing  year.  In 
these  gatherings  there  is  the  idea  of  an  association  of  people 
endowed  with  particular  powers  and  operating  more  or  less 
jointly  for  the  benefit  of  the  community.  In  short,  this  fringe 
of  Central  tribes  beyond  the  border  of  the  Kuksu  Cult  evince 
some  of  the  psychology  and  motives  of  the  Cult,  but  without 
the  definite  organization  of  the  latter,  and  also  without  some  of 
its  specific  practices,  such  as  god-impersonation.  These  gath¬ 
erings  of  the  medicine  men  thus  look  as  if  they  might  have  been 
the  simple  and  generalized  substratum  out  of  which  the  Kuksu 
Cult  grew  by  a  process  of  gradual  formalization  and  ritualistic 
elaboration.  This  conclusion  is  corroborated  by  the  distribution. 
It  is  the  tribes  at  the  ends  of  the  great  interior  valley,  or  in 
the  hills  above  it,  whose  rites  are  of  this  loose  type,  while  in 
the  center  are  the  true  Kuksu-dancing  groups.  There  is  a 
periphery  of  low  organization  and  a  core  of  high  organization. 
According  to  our  previous  rule  (§  87,  97),  recency  in  acquisition 
but  antiquity  of  stage  pertain  to  the  marginal  as  the  more 
widely  distributed ;  the  geographically  more  compact  nucleus 
representing  an  earlier  beginning  but  a  later  stage  of  present 
development.  That  is,  it  is  reasonable  to  believe  that  the  Kuksu 
Cult  grew  out  of  semi-forma]  gatherings  of  medicine-men  such 
as  still  survive  in  the  outlying  districts — the  “backwoods”  of 
the  Central  area. 


Fig.  32.  Native  ritual  growths  in  the  Californian  area,  the  range  of 
each  narrowing  in  proportion  to  its  recency  and  specialization.  First 
period,  stippling:  Girls’  Rite.  Second  period,  shading:  horizontal ,  MA , 
Mourning  Anniversary;  vertical ,  FS,  First-Salmon  Rite.  Third  and 
fourth  periods,  outlines:  A3,  Wealth  Display,  A4,  Deerskin  Dance;  B3, 
Kuksu  Society,  B4,  Hesi  Dance;  C3,  Jimsonweed  Cult,  C4,  Chungich- 
nish  Cult;  1)3-4 ,  Dream  Singing. 


THE  GROWTH  OF  A  PRIMITIVE  RELIGION  309 


Evidently  if  a  still  later  religious  movement  developed  as  an 
elaboration  or  addition  of  the  Kuksu  Cult,  it  should  be  less 
widely  diffused  than  this  system,  forming  a  sort  of  nucleus 
within  the  core.  Actually  there  is  such  a  later  growth.  This 
is  the  Hesi  Dance,  confined  to  the  Patwin  and  Maidu  of  the 
lower  Sacramento  valley  (Fig.  32),  and  regarded  by  them  as 
the  most  sacred  portion  of  the  Kuksu  system.  It  is  the  one  of 
all  their  rituals  into  which  the  largest  number  of  differently 
garbed  performers  enter,  and  is  made  twice  a  year  as  the  spec¬ 
tacular  beginning  and  finale  of  the  series  of  lesser  Kuksu  dances. 

The  history  of  native  ritual  in  Central  California  thus  is 
fairly  plain.  Early  in  the  Third  Period,  perhaps  already  dur¬ 
ing  the  Second,  the  specialists  in  religion,  the  medicine-men,  had 
acquired  the  habit  of  giving  public  demonstrations.  This  re¬ 
sulted  in  a  bond  of  fellowship  among  themselves  and  a  sense 
of  exclusiveness  toward  the  community  as  a  whole.  Out  of  this 
sense  there  was  elaborated  during  the  Third  Period,  somewhere 
about  the  lower  Sacramento  Valley,  the  idea  of  an  organized 
secret  society  with  initiated  members.  The  performances  be¬ 
came  more  and  more  elaborate,  and  the  production  of  proof  of 
supernatural  power  gradually  crystallized  into  impersonations 
of  deities.  By  the  beginning  of  the  Fourth  Period,  the  Kuksu 
Cult  had  been  established.  During  this  period,  it  was  carried 
from  the  center  of  origin  to  its  farthest  limits,  whereas  at  the 
center  the  Hesi  Dance  was  evolved  as  a  characteristic  addition. 
If  native  development  had  been  able  to  proceed  undisturbed,  if, 
for  instance,  the  coming  of  the  white  trace  had  been  deferred  a 
few  centuries  longer,  the  Hesi  might  have  followed  the  diffusion 
of  the  earlier  Kuksu  Cult;  and  while  this  new  spread  was  in 
progress,  the  Patwin  who  form  the  central  nucleus  of  the  whole 
Kuksu-Hesi  movement  might  have  been  devising  a  still  newer 
increment  to  the  system. 

159.  Third  and  Fourth  Periods  in  Southern  California: 

JlMSONWEED  AND  CHUNGICHNISH 

The  Southern  California  Jimsonweed  Rites  are  quite  distinct 
from  the  Kuksu  Cult  in  their  regalia,  dances,  and  teachings,  but 
are  also  based  on  initiation.  It  may  therefore  be  concluded, 


310 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


first,  that  they  grew  up  contemporaneously  in  the  Third  Period ; 
and  next,  that  they  sprang  out  of  the  same  soil,  a  growing  tend¬ 
ency  of  the  medicine-men  toward  professional  association.  The 
selection  of  the  jimsonweed  as  the  distinctive  element  in  the 
south  seems  to  have  been  due  to  influences  from  Mexico  and 
the  Southwest.  The  tribes  of  Arizona  and  New  Mexico  use  the 
plant  in  religion,  the  Aztecs  ascribed  supernatural  powers  to  it, 
and  the  modern  Tepecano  of  Mexico  pray  to  it  like  a  god.  The 
Spanish- American  name  for  the  plant,  toloache,  is  an  Aztec 
word.  Because  Mexican  civilization  was  so  much  the  more  ad¬ 
vanced,  it  seems  likely  that  the  use  of  jimsonweed  originated  in 
Mexico,  was  carried  into  the  Southwest,  and  from  there  spread 
into  Southern  California — perhaps  at  the  receptive  moment 
when  the  medicine-men’s  associations  were  drawing  more  closely 
together  and  feeling  the  need  of  some  powerful  emotional  ele¬ 
ment  to  lend  an  impetus  to  their  cults. 

While  the  Jimsonweed  religion  was  followed  by  Californian 
tribes  from  the  Yokuts  on  the  north  to  the  Diegueno  on  the 
south,  its  most  elaborate  forms  occur  among  groups  near  the 
center  of  Southern  California,  especially  the  Gabrielino  of  Los 
Angeles  and  Catalina  Island.  This  group  associates  the  greatest 
number  of  rituals  and  dances  with  the  Jimsonweed  Society,  and 
is  therefore  likely  to  have  had  the  leading  share  in  the  working 
out  of  the  religion. 

By  the  opening  of  the  Fourth  Period  the  Gabrielino  must 
have  had  the  Jimsonweed  Rites  pretty  fully  developed,  while 
the  peripheral  tribes  like  the  Yokuts  and  Diegueno  were  per¬ 
haps  only  learning  the  religious  use  of  the  drug.  The  Ga¬ 
brielino  however  did  not  stand  still  during  this  Fourth  Period, 
and  while  the  original  rather  simple  Jimsonweed  Rites  spread 
north  and  south,  they  were  adding  a  new  element.  This  is  the 
Chungichnish  Cult,  based  on  belief  in  a  great,  wise,  powerful 
god  of  this  name,  to  whom  are  due  the  final  ordaining  of  the 
world  and  the  institution  of  the  Jimsonweed  Rites  and  their 
correct  performance.  Associated  with  this  belief  is  the  use  of 
the  “ground  painting.”  This  is  a  large  picture,  usually  of  the 
world,  drawn  in  colored  earths,  sands,  seeds,  or  paints,  on  the 
floor  of  the  sacred  enclosure  in  which  the  Jimsonweed  rituals 
were  practised.  This  ground  painting  served  both  as  an  altar 


THE  GROWTH  OF  A  PRIMITIVE  RELIGION  311 


for  the  rites  and  as  a  means  of  instructing  the  initiates  (§  192, 
193).  The  custom  of  this  sacred  painting  became  firmly  estab¬ 
lished  among  the  Gabrielino,  and  is  known  to  have  spread  from 
them  to  other  tribes,  such  as  the  Luiseno.  From  these  it  has 
been  carried,  in  part  during  the  last  century,  after  the  white 
man  was  in  the  land,  to  still  more  remote  tribes  like  the  Diegueno, 
who  recognize  the  Gabrielino  island  of  Catalina  as  the  source 
of  the  Chungichnish  Cult  and  sing  its  songs  to  Gabrielino 
words  (Fig.  32). 

160.  Third  and  Fourth  Periods  on  the  Lower  Colorado: 

Dream  Singing 

In  Southeastern  California,  among  the  tribes  of  the  Lower 
Colorado  River,  the  Third  and  Fourth  Periods  are  less  easily 
distinguished.  The  reason  for  this  seems  to  be  the  fact  that 
religion  developed  among  these  tribes  less  through  the  invention 
or  establishment  of  new  elements,  than  by  the  lopping  away  of 
older  ones,  with  the  result  of  a  rather  narrow  specialization  on 
the  few  elements  that  were  retained.  Tribes  like  the  Yuma  and 
Mohave  scarcely  danced  for  religious  purposes.  The  special 
costumes,  showy  feather  headdresses,  disguises,  musical  instru¬ 
ments,  sand-paintings,  altars,  and  ritualistic  processions  that 
mark  the  Kuksu  and  Jimsonweed  cults,  were  lacking  among 
them.  They  did  adhere  to  the  widespread  and  ancient  idea 
that  dreams  are  a  source  and  evidence  of  supernatural  power. 
In  short,  their  religion  turned  inward,  not  outward.  Instead  of 
their  medicine-men  forming  a  society  based  on  initiation,  the 
Colorado  River  tribes  came  to  feel  that  every  one  might  be  a 
medicine-man  according  to  his  dreams.  They  put  emphasis  on 
these  internal  experiences.  The  result  has  been  that  they  be¬ 
lieve  that  a  legend  can  be  true  and  sacred  only  if  it  has  been 
dreamed,  and  that  a  man’s  songs  should  be  acquired  in  the  same 
way.  Religion,  therefore,  is  an  intensely  individualistic  affair 
among  them.  Since  no  two  men  can  dream  quite  alike,  no  two 
Yumas  or  Mohaves  tell  their  myths  or  sing  their  song  cycles 
identically.  This  cast  to  their  religion  is  so  strong  that  it  looks 
to  be  fairly  ancient.  The  beginnings  of  this  local  type  of  re¬ 
ligion  may  therefore  be  set  in  the  Third  Period.  As  for  the 


312 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


Fourth  Period,  it  may  be  inferred  that  this  chiefly  accentuated 
the  tendencies  developed  in  the  Third,  the  dream  basis  aug¬ 
menting  as  ceremonialism  dropped  away. 

161.  Northwestern  California:  World-renewal  and 

Wealth  Display 

The  Third  and  Fourth  periods  are  also  not  readily  distin¬ 
guishable  in  Northwestern  California.  Yet  here  the  rooting  of 
these  two  eras  in  the  Second  is  clearer.  We  have  seen  that  all 
through  northern  California  there  exists  the  First-salmon  Rite 
conducted  by  a  prominent  medicine-man  of  each  locality ;  and 
we  have  referred  the  probable  origin  of  this  rite  to  the  Second 
period.  The  modern  Indians  of  Northwestern  California  con¬ 
sider  their  great  dances  of  ten  or  twelve  days’  duration  as  being 
essentially  the  showy  public  accompaniment  of  an  extremely 
sacred  and  secret  act  performed  by  a  single  priest  who  recites 
a  magical  formula.  His  purpose  in  some  instances  is  to  open 
the  salmon  season,  in  others  to  inaugurate  the  acorn  crop,  in  still 
others  to  make  new  fire  for  the  community.  But  whatever  the 
particular  object,  it  is  always  believed  that  he  renews  something 
important  to  the  world.  He  “ makes  the  world,”  as  the  Indians 
call  it,  for  another  year.  These  New-year  or  World-renewing 
functions  of  the  rites  of  the  modern  Indians  of  Northwestern 
California  thus  appear  to  lead  back  by  a  natural  transition  to 
the  First-salmon  Rite  which  is  so  widely  spread  in  northern 
California.  Evidently  this  specific  rite  that  originated  in  the 
Second  Period  was  developed  in  the  Northwest  during  the  Third 
and  Fourth  eras  by  being  broadened  in  its  objective  and  having 
attached  to  it  certain  characteristic  dances. 

These  dances  are  the  Deerskin  and  Jumping  Dances.  They 
differ  from  those  of  the  Central  and  Southern  tribes  in  that 
every  one  may  participate  in  them.  There  is  no  idea  of  a  society 
with  membership,  and  hence  no  exclusion  of  the  uninitiated. 
In  fact  the  dances  are  primarily  occasions  for  displays  of 
wealth,  which  are  regarded  as  successful  in  proportion  to  the 
size  of  the  audience.  The  albino  deerskins,  ornaments  of  wood¬ 
pecker  scalps,  furs,  and  great  blades  of  flint  and  obsidian  which 
are  carried  in  these  dances,  constitute  the  treasures  of  these 


THE  GROWTH  OF  A  PRIMITIVE  RELIGION  313 


tribes.  The  dances  are  the  best  opportunity  of  the  rich  men  to 
produce  their  heirlooms  before  the  public  and  in  that  way  sig¬ 
nalize  the  honor  of  ownership — which  is  one  of  the  things  dearest 
in  life  to  the  Northwest  Californian. 

Another  feature  of  these  Northwestern  dances  which  marks 
them  off  from  the  Central  and  Southern  ones  is  the  fact  that 
they  can  only  be  held  in  certain  spots.  A  Kuksu  dance  is  rightly 
made  indoors,  but  any  properly  built  dance  house  will  answer 
for  its  performance.  A  Yurok  or  Hupa  however  would  con¬ 
sider  it  fundamentally  wrong  to  make  a  Deerskin  Dance  other 
than  on  the  accepted  spot  where  his  great-grandfather  had 
always  seen  it.  The  reason  for  this  attachment  to  the  spot  seems 
to  be  his  conviction  that  the  most  essential  part  of  the  dance 
is  a  secret,  magical  rite  enacted  only  in  the  specified  place  be¬ 
cause  the  formula  recited  as  its  nucleus  mentions  that  spot. 

In  the  Northwest  we  again  seem  to  be  able  to  recognize,  as 
in  the  Central  and  Southern  regions,  an  increasing  contraction 
of  area  for  each  successively  developed  ritual.  Whereas  the 
First-salmon  Rite  of  the  Second  Period  covers  the  whole  north¬ 
ern  third  of  California  and  parts  of  Oregon,  the  Wealth-display 
dances  and  World-renewing  rites  of  the  Third  and  Fourth  Pe¬ 
riods  occur  only  in  Northwestern  California.  The  Jumping 
Dance  was  performed  at  a  dozen  or  more  villages,  the  slightly 
more  splendid  Deerskin  Dance  only  in  eight  (Fig.  32).  This 
suggests  that  the  Jumping  Dance  is  the  earlier,  possibly  going 
back  to  the  Third  Period,  whereas  the  Deerskin  Dance  more 
probably  originated  during  the  Fourth. 

162.  Summary  op  Religious  Development 

The  history  of  religious  cults  among  the  Indians  of  California 
seems  thus  to  be  reconstructible,  with  some  probability  of  cor¬ 
rectness  in  its  essential  outlines,  as  a  progressive  differentiation 
during  four  fairly  distinct  periods.  During  these  four  eras, 
the  most  typical  cults  gradually  changed  from  a  personal  to  a 
communal  aim,  ceremonies  grew  more  numerous  as  well  as  more 
elaborate,  influences  from  the  outside  affected  the  tribes  within 
California,  and  local  differences  increased  until  the  original 
rather  close  uniformity  had  been  replaced  by  four  quite  dis- 


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Periods  of  Religious  Development  in  and  about  Native  California. 


Northwestern  Central  Southern  Lower  Colorado 

Sub-culture-area  Sub-culture-area  Sub-culture-area  Sub-culture-area 


Periods  of  Culture  Development  in  Native  California. 


316 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


tinct  systems  of  cults,  separated  in  most  cases  by  transitional 
areas  in  which  the  less  specialized  developments  of  the  earlier 
stages  have  been  preserved.  This  history  may  be  expressed  in 
visual  form,  as  on  page  314. 

163.  Other  Phases  of  Culture 

A  natural  question  arises  here.  Does  this  reconstructed  his¬ 
tory  apply  only  to  ritual  cults,  or  can  a  parallel  development 
be  traced  for  other  elements  of  religion,  for  industries,  inven¬ 
tions,  and  economic  relations,  for  social  institutions,  for  knowl¬ 
edge  and  art?  The  findings  are  that  this  history  holds  for  all 
phases  of  native  culture.  Material  and  social  development  pro¬ 
gressed  much  as  did  religion.  Each  succeeding  stage  brought  in 
new  implements  and  customs,  these  became  on  the  whole  more 
specialized  as  well  as  more  numerous,  and  differed  more  and 
more  locally  in  the  four  sub-culture-areas.  Thus  the  plain  or 
self  bow  belongs  demonstrably  to  an  earlier  stratum  than  the 
sinew-backed  one,  basketry  precedes  pottery,  twined  basketry  is 
earlier  than  coiled,  the  stone  mortar  antedates  the  slab  with 
basketry  mortar  as  the  oval  metate  does  the  squared  one,  earth- 
covered  sweat  houses  are  older  than  plank  roofed  ones,  and 
totemism  may  have  become  established  before  the  division  of 
society  into  exogamic  moieties.  It  would  be  a  long  story  to 
adduce  the  evidence  for  each  of  these  determinations  and  all 
others  that  could  be  made.  It  will  perhaps  suffice  to  say  that 
the  principles  by  which  they  are  arrived  at  are  the  same  as 
those  which  have  guided  us  in  the  inquiry  into  religion.  It  may 
therefore  be  enough  to  indicate  results  in  a  scheme,  as  on 
page  315.  It  will  be  seen  that  this  is  nothing  but  an  amplifica¬ 
tion  of  the  preceding  table.  The  framework  there  constructed 
to  represent  the  history  of 'native  rituals  has  here  been  further 
filled  with  elements  of  material  and  social  culture. 

164.  Outline  of  the  Culture  History  of  California 

In  general  terms,  the  net  results  of  our  inquiry  can  be  stated 
thus. 

First  Period :  a  simple,  meager  culture,  nearly  uniform 


THE  GROWTH  OF  A  PRIMITIVE  RELIGION  317 


throughout  California,  similar  to  the  cultures  of  adjacent  re¬ 
gions,  and  only  slightly  influenced  by  these. 

Second  Period:  definite  influences  from  the  North  Pacific 
Coast  and  the  Southwest,  affecting  respectively  the  northern 
third  and  the  southern  two  thirds  of  California,  and  thus  lead¬ 
ing  to  a  first  differentiation  of  consequence. 

Third  Period :  more  specific  influences  from  outside,  resulting 
in  the  formation  of  four  local  types:  the  Northwestern,  under 
North  Pacific  influences ;  the  Southern  and  Lower  Colorado 
under  stimulus  of  the  Southwest ;  and  the  Central,  farthest 
remote  from  both  and  thus  developing  most  slowly  but  also 
most  independently. 

Fourth  Period :  consummation  of  the  four  local  types.  Influ¬ 
ences  from  outside  continue  operative,  but  in  the  main  the  lines 
of  local  development  entered  upon  in  the  previous  era  are  fol¬ 
lowed  out,  reaching  their  highest  specialization  in  limited  tracts 
central  to  each  area. 

This  summary  not  only  outlines  the  course  of  culture  history 
in  native  California:  it  also  explains  why  there  are  both  widely 
uniform  and  narrowly  localized  culture  elements  in  the  region. 
It  thus  answers  the  question  why  from  one  aspect  the  tribes  of 
the  state  seem  so  much  alike  and  from  another  angle  they  appear 
endlessly  different.  They  are  alike  largely  insofar  as  they  have 
retained  certain  old  common  traits.  They  are  different  to  the 
degree  that  they  have  severally  added  traits  of  later  and  local¬ 
ized  development. 

165.  The  Question  of  Dating 

A  natural  question  is  how  long  these  periods  lasted.  As  re¬ 
gards  accurate  dating,  there  is  only  one  possible  answer:  we 
do  not  know  nearly  enough.  Moreover  modern  historians,  who 
possess  infinitely  fuller  records  on  chronology  than  anthropolo¬ 
gists  can  ever  hope  to  have  on  primitive  peoples,  tend  more  and 
more  to  lay  little  weight  on  specific  dates.  They  may  set  476 
A.D.,  the  so-called  fall  of  Rome,  as  the  point  of  demarcation 
between  ancient  and  mediaeval  history  because  it  is  sometimes 
useful,  especially  in  elementary  presentation,  to  speak  definitely. 
But  no  historian  believes  that  any  profound  change  took  place 


318 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


between  475  and  477  A.D.  That  is  an  impression  beginners  may 
get  from  the  way  history  is  sometimes  taught.  Yet  it  is  well 
recognized  that  certain  slow,  progressive  changes  were  going  on 
uninterruptedly  for  centuries  before  and  after;  and  that  if  the 
date  476  A.D.  is  arbitrarily  inserted  into  the  middle  of  this 
development,  it  is  because  to  do  so  is  conventionally  convenient, 
and  with  full  understanding  that  the  event  marked  was  dramatic 
or  symbolic  rather  than  intrinsically  significant.  In  fact,  the 
value  of  a  historian’s  work  lies  precisely  in  his  ability  to  show 
that  the  forces  which  shaped  medkeval  history  were  already  at 
work  during  the  period  of  ancient  times  and  that  the  causes 
which  had  molded  the  Roman  empire  continued  to  operate  in 
some  degree  for  many  centuries  after  the  fall  of  Rome. 

Nevertheless  there  is  no  doubt  that  occasional  dates  have  the 
virtue  of  impressing  the  mind  with  the  vividness  which  specific 
statements  alone  possess.  Also,  if  the  results  of  anthropological 
studies  are  to  be  connected  with  the  written  records  of  history 
proper,  at  least  tentative  dates  must  be  formulated,  though  of 
course  in  a  case  like  this  of  the  periods  of  native  culture  in 
California  it  is  understood  that  all  chronology  is  subject  to  a 
wide  margin  of  error. 

History  provides  a  start  toward  a  computation,  although  its 
aid  is  a  short  one.  California  began  to  be  settled  about  1770. 
The  last  tribes  were  not  brought  into  contact  with  the  white 
man  until  1850.  As  early,  however,  as  1540  Alarcon  rowed  and 
towed  up  the  lower  Colorado  and  wrote  an  account  of  the  tribes 
he  encountered  there.  Two  years  later,  Cabrillo  visited  the  coast 
and  island  tribes  of  southern  California,  and  wintered  among 
them.  In  1579  Drake  spent  some  weeks  on  shore  among  the 
central  Californians  and  a  member  of  his  crew  has  left  a  brief 
but  spirited  description  of  them.  In  all  three  instances  these 
old  accounts  of  native  customs  tally  with  remarkable  fidelity  with 
all  that  has  been  ascertained  in  regard  to  the  recent  tribes  of 
the  same  regions.  That  is,  native  culture  has  evidently  changed 
very  little  since  the  sixteenth  century.  The  local  sub-cultures 
already  showed  substantially  their  present  form ;  which  means 
that  the  Fourth  Period  must  have  been  well  established  three 
to  four  centuries  ago.  We  might  then  assign  to  this  period 
about  double  the  time  which  has  elapsed  since  the  explorers 


THE  GROWTH  OF  A  PRIMITIVE  RELIGION  319 


visited  California;  say  seven  hundred  years.  This  seems  a  con¬ 
servative  figure,  which  would  put  the  commencement  of  the 
Fourth  Period  somewhere  about  1200  A.D. 

All  the  remainder  must  be  reconstruction  by  projection.  In 
most  parts  of  the  world  for  which  there  are  continuous  records, 
it  is  found  that  civilization  usually  changes  more  rapidly  as 
time  goes  on.  While  this  is  not  a  rigorous  law,  it  is  a  prevailing 
tendency.  However,  let  us  apply  this  principle  with  reserve, 
and  assume  that  the  Third  Period  was  no  longer  than  the 
Fourth.  Another  seven  hundred  years  would  carry  back  to 
500  A.D. 

Now,  however,  it  seems  reasonable  to  begin  to  lengthen  our 
periods  somewhat.  For  the  Second,  a  thousand  years  does  not 
appear  excessive :  approximately  from  500  B.C.  to  500  A.D.  By 
the  same  logic  the  First  Period  should  be  allowed  from  a  thou¬ 
sand  to  fifteen  hundred  years.  It  might  be  wisest  to  set  no 
beginning  at  all,  since  our  “First”  period  is  only  the  first  of 
those  which  are  determinable  with  present  knowledge.  Actually, 
it  may  have  been  preceded  by  a  still  more  primitive  era  on 
which  as  yet  no  specific  evidence  is  available.  It  can  however 
be  suggested  that  by  2000  or  1500  B.C.  the  beginnings  of  na¬ 
tive  Californian  culture  as  we  know  it  had  already  been  made. 

166.  The  Evidence  of  Archaeology 

There  is  left  as  a  final  check  on  the  problem  of  age  a  means 
of  attack  which  under  favorable  circumstances  is  sometimes  the 
most  fruitful :  archaeological  excavation,  especially  when  it  leads 
to  stratigraphic  determination,  that  is,  the  finding  of  different 
but  superimposed  layers.  Unfortunately  archaeology  affords 
only  limited  aid  in  California — much  less,  for  instance,  than  in 
the  Southwest.  Nothing  markedly  stratigraphical  has  been  dis¬ 
covered.  Pottery,  which  has  usually  proved  the  most  serviceable 
of  all  classes  of  prehistoric  remains  for  working  out  sequences 
of  culture  and  chronologies,  is  unrepresented  in  the  greater  part 
of  California,  and  is  sparse  and  rather  recent  in  those  southern 
parts  in  which  it  does  occur. 

Still,  archaeological  excavation  has  brought  to  light  something. 
It  has  shown  that  the  ancient  implements  found  in  shellmounds 


320 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


and  village  sites  in  Southern  California,  those  from  the  shores 
of  San  Francisco  Bay  in  Central  California,  and  those  along  the 
coast  of  Northwestern  California,  are  distinct.  Certain  peculiar 
types  of  artifacts  are  found  in  each  of  these  regions,  are  found 
only  there,  and  agree  closely  with  objects  used  by  the  modern 
tribes  of  the  same  districts.  For  instance,  prehistoric  village 
and  burial  sites  in  Northwestern  California  contain  long  blades 
of  flaked  obsidian  like  those  used  until  a  few  years  ago  by  the 
Yurok  and  Hupa.  Sites  in  Southern  California  have  brought 
to  light  soapstone  bowls  or  “ollas”  such  as  the  Spaniards  a 
century  ago  found  the  Gabrielino  and  Luiseno  employing  in 
cooking  and  in  jimsonweed  administration.  Both  these  classes 
of  objects  are  wanting  from  the  San  Francisco  Bay  shellmounds 
and  among  the  recent  Central  Californian  tribes. 

It  may  thus  be  inferred  (1)  that  none  of  the  four  local  cul¬ 
tures  was  ever  spread  much  more  widely  than  at  present;  (2) 
that  each  of  them  originated  mainly  on  the  spot;  and  (3)  that 
because  many  of  the  prehistoric  finds  lie  at  some  depth,  the  local 
cultures  are  of  respectable  antiquity — evidently  at  least  a  thou¬ 
sand  years  old,  probably  more.  This  fairly  confirms  the  esti¬ 
mate  that  the  differentiation  of  the  local  cultures  of  the  Third 
Period  commenced  not  later  than  about  500  A.D. 

167.  Age  of  the  Shellmounds 

Archaeology  also  yields  certain  indications  as  to  the  total  lapse 
of  time  during  the  four  periods.  The  deposits  themselves  con¬ 
tribute  the  evidence.  Some  of  the  shellmounds  that  line  the 
ramifying  shores  of  San  Francisco  Bay  to  the  number  of  over 
four  hundred  have  been  carefully  examined.  These  mounds  are 
refuse  accumulations.  They  were  not  built  up  with  design,  but 
grew  gradually  as  people  lived  on  them  year  after  year,  because 
much  of  the  food  of  their  inhabitants  was  molluscs — chiefly 
clams,  oysters,  and  mussels — whose  shells  were  thrown  outdoors 
or  trodden  under  foot.  Some  of  the  sites  were  camped  on  only 
transiently,  and  the  layers  of  refuse  never  grew  more  than  a 
few  inches  in  thickness.  Other  spots  were  evidently  inhabited 
for  many  centuries,  since  the  masses  of  shell  now  run  more 
than  thirty  feet  deep  and  hundreds  of  feet  long.  The  higher 


THE  GROWTH  OF  A  PRIMITIVE  RELIGION  321 


such  a  mound  grew,  the  better  it  drained  off.  One  side  of  it 
would  afford  shelter  from  the  prevailing  winds.  The  more 
regularly  it  came  to  be  lived  on,  the  more  often  would  the  in¬ 
habitants  bring  their  daily  catch  home,  and,  without  knowing 
it,  thus  help  to  raise  and  improve  the  site  still  further. 

Some  of  these  sliellmounds  are  now  situated  high  and  dry, 
at  some  distance  above  tide  water.  Others  lie  on  the  very  edge 
of  the  bay,  and  several  of  these,  when  shafts  were  sunk  into 
them,  proved  to  extend  some  distance  below  mean  sea  level. 
The  base  of  a  large  deposit  known  as  the  Ellis  Landing  mound, 
near  Richmond,  is  eighteen  feet  below  high  tide  level;  of  one  on 
Brooks  island  near  by,  seventeen  feet.  The  conclusion  is  that 
the  sites  have  sunk  at  least  seventeen  or  eighteen  feet  since  they 
began  to  be  inhabited.  The  only  alternative  explanation,  that 
the  first  settlers  put  their  houses  on  piles  over  the  water,  is 
opposed  by  several  facts.  The  shells  and  ashes  and  soil  of  the 
Ellis  Landing  mound  are  stratified  as  they  would  be  deposited 
on  land,  not  as  they  would  arrange  in  water.  There  are  no 
layers  of  mud,  remains  of  inedible  marine  animals,  or  ripple 
marks.  There  is  no  record  of  any  recent  Californian  tribe  living 
in  pile  dwellings;  the  shore  from  which  the  mound  rises  is  un¬ 
favorably  situated  for  such  structures,  being  open  and  exposed 
to  storms.  Suitable  timber  for  piles  grows  only  at  some  distance. 
One  is  therefore  perforce  driven  to  the  conclusion  that  this 
mound  accumulated  on  a  sinking  shore,  but  that  the  growth  of 
the  deposit  was  more  rapid  than  the  rise  of  the  sea,  so  that  the 
site  always  remained  habitable. 

How  long  a  time  would  be  required  for  a  coast  to  subside 
eighteen  feet  is  a  question  for  geologists,  but  their  reply  remains 
indefinite.  A  single  earthquake  might  cause  a  sudden  subsidence 
of  several  feet,  or  again  the  change  might  progress  at  the  rate 
of  a  foot  or  only  an  inch  a  century.  All  that  geologists  are 
willing  to  state  is  that  the  probability  is  high  of  the  subsidence 
having  been  a  rather  long  time  taking  place. 

The  archaeologists  have  tried  to  compute  the  age  of  Ellis 
Landing  mound  in  another  way.  When  it  was  first  examined 
there  were  near  its  top  about  fifteen  shallow  depressions.  These 
appear  to  be  the  remains  of  the  pits  over  which  the  Indians  were 
wont  to  build  their  dwellings.  A  native  household  averages 


322 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


about  7  inmates.  One  may  thus  estimate  a  population  of  about 
100  souls.  Numerous  quadruped  bones  in  the  mound  prove  that 
these  people  hunted;  net  sinkers,  that  they  fished;  mortars  and 
pestles,  that  they  consumed  acorns  and  other  seeds.  Accord¬ 
ingly,  only  part  of  their  subsistence,  and  probably  the  minor 
part,  was  derived  from  molluscs.  Fifty  mussels  a  day  for  man, 
woman,  and  child  seem  a  fair  estimate  of  what  their  shellfish 
food  is  likely  to  have  aggregated.  This  would  mean  that  the 
shells  of  5,000  mussels  would  accumulate  on  the  site  daily. 
Laboratory  experiments  prove  that  5,000  such  shells,  with  the 
addition  of  the  same  percentage  of  ash  and  soil  as  occurs  in  the 
mound,  all  crushed  down  to  the  same  consistency  of  compact¬ 
ness  as  the  body  of  the  mound  exhibits,  occupy  a  volume  of  a 
cubic  foot.  This  being  the  daily  increment,  the  growth  of  the 
mound  would  be  in  the  neighborhood  of  365  feet  per  year.  Now 
the  deposit  contains  roughly  a  million  and  a  quarter  cubic  feet. 
Dividing  this  figure  by  365,  one  obtains  about  3,500  as  the  pre¬ 
sumable  number  of  years  required  to  accumulate  the  mound. 

This  result  may  not  be  accepted  too  literally.  It  is  the  result 
of  a  calculation  with  several  factors,  each  of  which  is  only  ten¬ 
tative.  Had  the  population  been  200  instead  of  100,  the  deposit 
would,  with  the  other  terms  of  the  computation  remaining  the 
same,  have  built  up  twice  as  fast,  and  the  3,500  years  would 
have  to  be  cut  in  half.  On  the  other  hand,  it  has  been  assumed 
that  occupation  of  the  site  was  continuous  through  the  year.  Yet 
all  that  is  known  of  the  habits  of  the  Indians  makes  it  probable 
that  the  mound  inhabitants  were  accustomed  to  go  up  into  the 
hills  and  camp  about  half  the  time.  Allowance  for  this  factor 
would  double  the  3,500  years.  All  that  is  maintained  for  the 
computed  age  is  that  it  represents  a  conscientious  and  conserva¬ 
tive  endeavor  to  draw  a  conclusion  from  all  available  sources 
of  knowledge,  and  that  it  seems  to  hit  as  near  the  truth  as  a 
calculation  of  this  sort  can. 

One  verification  has  been  attempted.  Samples  of  mound  ma¬ 
terial,  taken  randomly  from  different  parts,  indicate  that  14  per 
cent  of  its  weight,  or  about  7,000  tons,  are  ashes.  If  the  mound 
is  3,500  years  old,  the  ashes  were  deposited  at  the  rate  of  two 
tons  a  year,  or  about  eleven  pounds  daily.  Experiments  with 
the  woods  growing  in  the  neighborhood  have  shown  that  they 


THE  GROWTH  OF  A  PRIMITIVE  RELIGION  323 


yield  less  than  one  per  cent  of  ash.  The  eleven  daily  pounds 
must  therefore  have  come  from  1,200  pounds  of  wood.  On  the 
assumption,  as  before,  that  the  population  averaged  fifteen  fami¬ 
lies,  the  one-fifteenth  share  of  each  household  would  be  eighty 
pounds  daily.  This  is  a  pretty  good  load  of  firewood  for  a 
woman  to  carry  on  her  back,  and  with  the  Indians’  habit  of 
nursing  their  fires  economically,  especially  along  a  timberless 
shore,  eighty  pounds  seems  a  liberal  allowance  to  satisfy  all  their 
requirements  for  heating  and  cooking.  If  they  managed  to  get 
along  on  less  than  eighty  pounds  per  hut,  the  mound  age  would 
be  correspondingly  greater. 

This  check  calculation  thus  verifies  the  former  estimate  rather 
reasonably.  It  does  not  seem  rash  to  set  down  three  to  four 
thousand  years  as  the  indicated  age  of  the  mound. 

This  double  archaeological  conclusion  tallies  as  closely  as  one 
could  wish  with  the  results  derived  from  the  ethnological  method 
of  estimating  antiquity  from  the  degree  and  putative  rapidity 
of  cultural  change.  Both  methods  carry  the  First  traceable 
period  back  to  about  1,500  or  2,000  B.C.  After  all,  exactness  is 
of  little  importance  in  matters  such  as  these,  except  as  an  indi¬ 
cation  of  certitude.  If  it  could  be  proved  that  the  first  mussel 
was  eaten  by  a  human  being  on  the  site  of  Ellis  Landing  in 
1724  B.C.,  this  piece  of  knowledge  would  carry  interest  chiefly 
in  proving  that  an  exact  method  of  chronology  had  been  devel¬ 
oped,  and  would  possess  value  mainly  in  that  the  date  found 
might  ultimately  be  connectible  with  the  dates  of  other  events 
in  history  and  so  lead  to  broader  formulations. 

168.  General  Serviceability  of  the  Method 

The  anthropological  facts  which  have  been  analyzed  and  then 
recombined  in  the  foregoing  pages  are  not  presented  with  the 
idea  that  the  history  of  the  lowly  and  fading  Californians  is  of 
particular  intrinsic  moment.  They  have  been  discussed  chiefly 
as  an  illustration  of  method,  as  one  example  out  of  many  that 
might  have  been  chosen.  That  it  was  the  California  Indians 
who  were  selected,  is  partly  an  accident  of  the  writer’s  famil¬ 
iarity  with  them.  The  choice  seems  fair  because  the  problem 
here  undertaken  is  rather  more  difficult  than  many.  The  Cali- 


224 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


fornian  cultures  were  simple.  They  decayed  quickly  on  con¬ 
tact  with  civilization.  The  bulk  of  historical  records  go  back 
barely  a  century  and  a  half.  Archaeological  exploration  has  been 
imperfect  and  yields  comparatively  meager  results.  Then,  too, 
the  whole  Californian  culture  is  only  a  fragment  of  American 
Indian  culture,  so  that  the  essentially  local  Californian  prob¬ 
lems  would  have  been  further  illuminated  by  being  brought  into 
relation  with  the  facts  available  from  North  America  as  a  whole 
• — an  aid  which  has  been  foregone  in  favor  of  compact  presen¬ 
tation.  In  short,  the  problem  was  made  difficult  by  its  limita¬ 
tions,  and  yet  results  have  been  obtained.  Obviously,  the  same 
method  applied  under  more  favorable  circumstances  to  regions 
whose  culture  is  richer  and  more  diversified,  where  documented 
history  projects  farther  back  into  the  past,  where  excavation 
yields  nobler  monuments  and  provides  them  in  stratigraphic 
arrangement,  and  especially  when  wider  areas  are  brought  into 
comparison,  can  result  in  determinations  that  are  correspond¬ 
ingly  more  exact,  full,  and  positive. 

It  is  thus  clear  that  cultural  anthropology  possesses  a  tech¬ 
nique  of  operation  which  needs  only  vigorous,  sane,  and  patient 
application  to  be  successful.  This  technique  is  newer  and  as  yet 
less  refined  than  those  of  the  mechanical  sciences.  It  is  also 
under  the  disadvantage  of  having  to  accept  its  materials  as  they 
are  given  in  nature ;  it  is  impossible  to  carry  cultural  facts  into 
the  laboratory  and  conduct  experiments  on  them.  Still,  it  is  a 
method;  and  its  results  differ  from  those  of  the  so-called  exact 
sciences  in  degree  of  sharpness  rather  than  in  other  quality. 

It  will  be  noted  that  throughout  this  analysis  there  has  been 
no  mention  of  laws ;  that  at  most,  principles  of  method  have  been 
recognized — such  as  the  assumption  that  widely  spread  culture 
elements  are  normally  more  ancient  than  locally  distributed 
ones.  In  this  respect  cultural  anthropology  is  in  a  class  with 
political  and  economic  history,  and  with  all  the  essentially  his¬ 
torical  sciences  such  as  natural  history  and  geology.  The  his¬ 
torian  rarely  enunciates  laws,  or  if  he  does,  he  usually  means 
only  tendencies.  The  “laws”  of  historical  zoology  are  essen¬ 
tially  laws  of  physiology ;  those  of  geology,  laws  of  physics  and 
chemistry.  Even  the  “laws”  of  astronomy,  when  they  are  not 
mere  formulations  of  particular  occurrences  which  our  narrow 


THE  GROWTH  OP  A  PRIMITIVE  RELIGION  325 


outlook  on  time  causes  to  seem  universal,  are  not  really  astro¬ 
nomical  laws  but  mechanical  and  mathematical  ones.  In  other 
words.,  anthropology  belongs  in  the  group  of  the  historical 
sciences :  those  branches  of  knowledge  concerned  with  things  as 
and  how  and  when  they  happen,  with  events  as  they  appear  in 
experience;  whereas  the  group  of  sciences  that  formulates  laws 
devotes  itself  to  the  inherent  and  immutable  properties  of 
things,  irrespective  of  their  place  or  sequence  or  occurrence  in 
nature. 

Of  course,  there  must  be  laws  underlying  culture  phenomena. 
There  is  no  possibility  of  denying  them  unless  one  is  ready  to 
remove  culture  out  of  the  realm  of  science  and  set  it  into  the 
domain  of  the  supernatural.  Where  can  one  seek  these  laws 
that  inhere  in  culture?  Obviously  in  that  which  underlies  cul¬ 
ture  itself,  namely,  the  human  mind.  The  laws  of  anthropo¬ 
logical  data,  like  those  of  history,  are  then  laws  of  psychology. 
As  regards  ultimate  explanations  for  the  facts  which  it  discovers, 
classifies,  analyzes,  and  recombines  into  orderly  reconstructions 
and  significant  syntheses,  cultural  anthropology  must  look  to 
psychology.  The  one  is  concerned  with  “what”  and  “how”; 
the  other  with  “why”;  each  depends  on  the  other  and  supple¬ 
ments  it. 


CHAPTER  XIII 


THE  HISTORY  OF  CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE 

AMERICA 


169.  Review  of  tlie  method  of  culture  examination. — 170.  Limitations 
on  the  diffusion  principle. — 171.  Cultural  ranking. — 172.  Cultural  ab¬ 
normalities. — 173.  Environmental  considerations. — 174.  Culture-areas. — 
175.  Diagrammatic  representation  of  accumulation  and  diffusion  of  culture 
traits. — 176.  Representation  showing  contemporaneity  and  narrative  repre¬ 
sentation. — 177.  Racial  origin  of  the  American  Indians. — 178.  The  time 
of  the  peopling  of  America. — 179.  Linguistic  diversification. — 180.  The 
primitive  culture  of  the  immigrants. — 181.  The  route  of  entry  into  the 
western  hemisphere. — 182.  The  spread  over  two  continents. — 183.  Emer¬ 
gence  of  middle  American  culture:  maize. — 184.  Tobacco. — 185.  The  se- 
sequence  of  social  institutions. — 186.  Rise  of  political  institutions:  con¬ 
federacy  and  empire. — 187.  Developments  in  weaving. — 188.  Progress  in 
spinning:  cotton. — 189.  Textile  clothing. — 190.  Cults:  shamanism. — 191. 
Crisis  rites  and  initiations. — 192.  Secret  societies  and  masks. — 193. 
Priesthood. — 194.  Temples  and  sacrifice. — 195.  Architecture,  sculpture, 
towns. — 196.  Metallurgy. — 197.  Calendars  and  astronomy. — 198.  Writing. 
— 199.  The  several  provincial  developments :  Mexico.— 200.  The  Andean 
area. — 201.  Colombia. — 202.  The  Tropical  Forest. — 203.  Patagonia. — 204. 
North  America:  the  Southwest. — 205.  The  Southeast. — 206.  The  Northern 
Woodland. — 207.  Plains  area. — 208.  The  Northwest  Coast. — 209.  North¬ 
ern  marginal  areas. — 210.  Later  Asiatic  Influences. 

169.  Review  of  the  Method  of  Culture  Examination 

In  a  previous  chapter  (VII)  it  has  been  shown  that  culture 
cannot  be  adequately  explained  either  by  the  innate  peculiarities 
of  racial  stocks  nor  by  the  influences  of  geographic  environment ; 
that  the  factors  to  be  primarily  considered  in  the  interpretation 
of  civilization  are  cultural  or  social  ones. 

In  a  subsequent  chapter  (VIII)  it  was  made  clear  that  civili¬ 
zation  is  to  a  great  extent  the  result  of  accretion.  New  elements 
are  handed  down  in  time  or  passed  along  in  space  by  a  process 
which  psychologically  is  one  of  imitation  and  in  its  cultural 
manifestations  is  spoken  of  as  tradition  or  diffusion.  The  chap¬ 
ters  on  the  arch  and  the  week,  and  the  alphabet  (X,  XI)  serve 
as  exemplifications  that  the  principle  holds  with  equal  validity 
in  the  domains  of  mechanical,  institutional,  and  intellectual  ac- 

326 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


327 


tivity.  It  must  be  accepted  therefore  purely  as  the  consequence 
of  an  objective  or  behavioristic  examination  of  human  civiliza¬ 
tion,  that  while  the  element  of  invention  or  creative  progress 
remains  unexplained,  the  factor  of  diffusion  or  imitation  is  the 
one  that  is  operative  in  the  majority  of  cultural  events.  As  con¬ 
trasted  with  it,  instances  of  the  principle  of  independent  origin 
or  parallel  development  prove  to  be  decidedly  rare,  and  tend  to 
be  illusory  on  searching  analysis  or  to  dissolve  into  only  partial 
similarities. 

In  the  analysis  of  the  growth  of  religion  in  native  California 
(Chapter  XII),  the  attempt  was  made  to  apply  an  assumption 
derived  from  the  diffusion  principle — the  assumption  that  nor¬ 
mally  the  more  widely  spread  element  would  be  the  more  ancient 
— to  the  unraveling  of  the  growth  of  a  civilization  which  on 
account  of  its  poverty  has  left  no  chronological  records ;  in  short, 
to  reconstruct  the  tentative  history  of  a  field  lacking  ordinary 
historical  data,  by  converting  elements  of  space  into  elements  of 
time. 

It  may  now  be  worth  while  to  apply  this  method  on  a  larger 
scale  and  endeavor  to  outline  the  pre-Columbian  history  of  the 
western  hemisphere,  which,  with  some  brief  and  late  exceptions 
in  Mexico  and  Peru,  is  equally  dateless.  The  cultural  connec¬ 
tions  of  native  America  with  the  Old  World  are  generally  con¬ 
ceded  to  have  been  slight :  its  civilization  represents  the  most 
important  one  that  in  the  main  developed  independently  of  the 
Eur- Asiatic  nexus. 

170.  Limitations  on  the  Diffusion  Principle 

To  essay,  by  the  mere  principle  of  converting  spatial  extent 
into  temporal  duration,  an  accomplishment  of  such  magnitude 
and  ultimately  of  such  complexity  as  this,  may  seem  simplistic; 
and  it  would  be.  The  distribution  principle  may  be  the  most 
useful  of  the  weapons  in  the  ethnologist’s  armory.  But  it  re¬ 
quires  supplement  and  qualification. 

First  of  all,  it  is  obvious  that  spatial  extension  must  not  be 
measured  mechanically.  To  work  on  the  assumption  that  a 
custom  or  art  practised  over  a  million  square  miles  was  a  third 
as  old  again  as  one  practised  over  seven  hundred  and  fifty 


328 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


Fig.  33.  Schematic  illustration  of  distributions  of  culture  traits  as 
indicative  of  their  history.  A,  distribution  corresponding  to  one  by 
accident,  and  suggesting  that  each  occurrence  is  independent  of  the 
others.  B,  distribution  by  contiguous  occurrences,  strongly  suggesting 
a  single  invention  and  subsequent  diffusion.  C,  distribution  inter¬ 
pretable  as  due  either  to  independent,  parallel  origins;  or  to  a  single 
origin,  diffusion  over  the  whole  area,  and  subsequent  loss  of  the  trait 
in  most  parts,  with  survival  only  in  marginal  tracts.  The  loss  in  the 
central  area  might  be  due  to  the  growth  of  a  supplanting  trait,  whose 
later  diffusion  had  not  yet  penetrated  to  the  farthest  ends.  D,  distri¬ 
bution  suggesting  a  single  origin  old  enough  for  its  diffusion  to  have 
become  extensive,  but  checked  in  certain  directions  by  adverse  condi¬ 
tions  in  nature,  communications,  or  cultural  preoccupation.  The  spe¬ 
cific  demonstration  of  such  adverse  factors  would  substantiate  the  in¬ 
terpretation. 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


329 


thousand,  would  be  too  often  contrary  to  the  evidence  of  known 
history  as  well  as  the  dictates  of  reason.  Culture  traits  do  die 
out,  from  inanition,  from  sterility  of  social  soil,  through  sup¬ 
planting  by  more  vigorous  descendants.  Continuity  is  there¬ 
fore  not  a  necessary  ingredient  of  geographical  range.  An 
ancient  trait  may  have  been  displaced  in  all  but  a  few  remote 
peripheral  tracts.  The  areas  of  these  may  aggregate  but  little. 
Yet  the  distances  between  them  are  likely  to  remain  greater  than 
the  longest  range  of  a  later  trait  which  has  replaced  the  earlier 
one  over  most  of  its  original  territory. 

Thus,  alphabetic  writing  is  more  recent  than  the  ideographic 
and  rebus  methods,  but  in  the  year  1500  A.D.  was  in  use  over 
a  larger  area  in  Europe,  Africa,  and  Asia  than  the  surviving 
Chinese  and  Mexican  systems  occupied.  Yet  these  two  outlying 
systems  enclosed  between  them  a  larger  tract  than  those  over 
which  the  alphabets  had  diffused. 

So,  at  the  same  period,  was  agriculture  practised  by  peoples 
holding  more  area  than  was  occupied  by  non-agricultural  ones. 
But  the  former  constituted  two  great  and  continuous  groups,  one 
in  each  hemisphere,  to  which  the  non-agricultural  peoples  in  the 
north  of  Asia,  the  south  of  Africa,  the  remote  continent  of 
Australia,  the  north  of  North  America,  and  the  south  of  South 
America  were  obviously  peripheral.  Agriculture  being  of  neces¬ 
sity  later  than  the  non-agricultural  state,  and  there  being  thus 
no  doubt  that  the  marginal  hunting  peoples  represent  the  rem¬ 
nant  of  a  condition  that  was  once  world-wide,  it  appears  that 
there  must  be  a  presumption  of  validity  in  favor  of  reckoning 
the  extent  of  a  scattered  custom  by  its  included  rather  than  its 
actual  area. 

Of  course,  the  situation  is  not  always  so  simple.  There  may 
exist  the  possibility  of  two  or  more  marginal  areas  sharing  a 
trait  as  the  result  of  parallelism.  ITalf-hitch  basketry  coiling 
in  Tasmania  and  at  Cape  Horn  might  logically  be  the  last  sur¬ 
vival  of  a  very  ancient  world-wide  diffusion,  or  the  product 
of  two  thoroughly  independent  inventions,  or  of  parallel  proc¬ 
esses  of  degeneration  in  isolated  and  culturally  unstimulated 
nooks.  The  last  two  interpretations  in  fact  seem  more  conserva¬ 
tive  than  the  first.  If  half-hitch  coiling  were  as  antecedent  in 
its  nature  to  other  coiling  and  to  weaving  as  wild  foods  are  to 


330 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


cultivated  ones;  or  if  the  Old  Stone  Age  remains  showed  it  to 
have  been  actually  so ;  or  if  it  were  practised  by  a  considerable 
number  of  tribes  in  four  or  five  rather  large  marginal  areas  in¬ 
stead  of  two  quite  narrow  ones,  diffusion,  and  the  consequent 
antiquity  of  the  trait,  could  be  inferred  with  high  probability. 
In  short,  the  periphery  argument  must  not  be  stretched  too  thin. 

Obviously,  too,  comparables  must  be  compared:  coiling  with 
twining,  hand-weaving  with  loom-weaving;  not,  however,  the 
very  special  variety  of  half-hitch  coiling  with  the  entire  array 
of  weaving  techniques.  Nor  would  it  be  fair  to  balance  the  whole 
group  of  true  alphabets  in  the  year  500  B.C.  against  the  par¬ 
ticular  rebus  system  of  Egyptian  hieroglyphs  from  which  they 
were  possibly  derived  but  which  they  had  already  much  exceeded 
in  their  diffusion.  Yet  the  distribution  of  all  alphabets  as 
against  that  of  all  ideographic  and  rebus  systems  would  lead, 
at  that  date  as  two  thousand  years  later,  to  the  same  interpre¬ 
tation  that  the  facts  of  history  actually  give. 

171.  Cultural  Ranking 

Consideration  must  also  be  allowed,  within  certain  limits,  to 
cultural  superiority  and  inferiority.*  This  is  a  criterion  that 
has  been  abused  in  the  earlier  anthropology,  but  it  is  usable 
with  caution,  especially  where  a  measure  of  experience  confirms 
the  grading  that  seems  rational.  A  machine  process  would 
normally  be  later  than  a  manual  one :  cloth,  for  instance,  subse¬ 
quent  to  basketry.  The  antiquity  of  both  these  products  hap¬ 
pens  to  be  so  great  that  little  or  no  direct  historical  evidence 
exists,  and  their  perishability  precludes  much  help  from  archae¬ 
ology.  Yet  there  is  this  indirect  evidence:  there  are  peoples 
that  make  baskets  only,  others  that  make  baskets  and  cloth, 
none  that  make  cloth  only.  Cloth  thus  is  something  superadded, 
which,  not  coming  into  competition  of  utility  with  basketry, 
coexists  with  it. 

Where  two  devices  serve  the  same  end  and  come  into  full  con¬ 
tact,  the  issue  is  even  simpler,  because  the  better  crowds  out  the 
worse.  There  is  no  record  of  any  people,  once  able  to  produce 
metal  axes  or  knives,  reverting  to  or  inventing  stone  ones.  An 
adequate  system  of  recording  events  has  always  maintained 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


331 


itself.  Literacy  may  have  become  less  frequent,  now  and  then, 
under  economic  or  military  stress,  and  literature  poorer,  but  no 
recording  culture  has  ever  gone  back  wholly  to  oral  tradition. 
Specific  systems  of  records  have  indeed  died  out — witness  Egyp¬ 
tian  and  Cuneiform:  but  only  because  they  were  rendered  use¬ 
less  by  more  efficient  systems  of  pure  phonetic  writing.  These, 
on  the  other  hand,  have  never  been  known  to  yield  to  non- 
phonetic  systems. 

It  is  very  different  with  culture  phenomena  whose  ranking 
is  based  solely  on  the  operation  of  our  imaginations.  In  such 
cases  judgment  should  if  possible  be  wholly  suspended  until 
evidence  is  available.  For  fifty  or  sixty  years  it  has  seemed 
eminently  plausible  and  natural,  even  inevitable  to  most  people, 
that  matrilinear  institutions  preceded  patrilinear  ones,  because 
a  man  must  know  his  mother,  but  in  a  condition  of  promiscuity 
would  not  know  his  father.  Yet  incontrovertible  historical  evi¬ 
dence  of  a  change  is  conspicuously  deficient,  so  that  the  belief 
in  the  antecedence  of  the  matrilineate  has  remained  founded 
solely  in  hypothesis.  As  has  been  indicated  above  (§  110)  and 
will  be  shown  more  in  detail  below  (§  185),  the  indirect  evidence 
of  distribution  indicates  rather  that  definitely  matrilinear  and 
patrilinear  institutions  have  tended  to  be  closely  associated,  and 
that  among  exogamous  and  totemic  peoples  the  matrilineate  has 
usually  been  the  later  phase. 

In  fact,  one  important  stimulus  to  belief  in  matrilineal  priority 
has  been  the  awareness  that  the  most  advanced  cultures  of  the 
recent  period  have  inclined  to  count  descent  from  the  father. 
But  it  is  obviously  unfounded  to  deduce  from  this  that  ancient 
and  primitive  nations  favored  mother-reckoning.  It  would  be 
equally  logical — or  illogical — to  infer  that  what  is  had  always 
been  since  institutions  arose,  as  to  argue  that  because  a  thing 
is  now  it  must  formerly  not  have  been. 

This  points  to  a  further  limiting  consideration:  that  it  is 
dangerous  to  argue  from  a  fraction  of  culture  history  to  the 
whole.  Particularly  dangerous  is  it  to  infer  from  the  last  four 
centuries  to  all  that  went  before.  In  the  present  era  distant 
communications  have  become  infinitely  more  numerous  and 
rapid.  Space  has  in  one  sense  been  almost  abolished.  Diffu¬ 
sions  that  now  encircle  the  planet  in  a  hundred  years  would 


332 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


in  previous  ages  often  have  required  a  thousand  to  cross  a  con¬ 
tinent  by  halting  steps  from  people  to  people. 

Similarly,  the  results  of  the  diffusion  principle  may  be  vitiated 
by  an  arbitrary  bounding  of  the  spatial  field  of  investigation. 
A  review  of  African  distributions  by  themselves,  for  instance, 
would  lead  to  many  misleading  conclusions,  because  it  is  obvious 
that  African  culture  has  evolved  not  integrally  but  as  a  part  of 
the  larger  complex  Europe-Asia- Africa.  What  from  the  angle 
of  Africa  thus  appears  central,  like  iron,  may  really  be 
peripheral ;  what  appears  marginal,  like  Islam,  is  often  actually 
central.  By  comparison  America  is  so  discrete  from  the  Old 
World,  both  geographically  and  historically,  that  an  analogous 
attempt  is  far  more  justifiable.  Yet  even  here,  as  will  appear, 
some  influences  from  the  Old  World  have  operated,  whose 
a  priori  elimination  would  lead  to  false  conclusions. 

As  regards  what  is  high  and  low,  whole  cultures  as  well  as 
culture  elements  must  be  considered.  Between  two  civilizations, 
it  is  fair  to  assume  that  the  more  advanced  will  normally  radiate, 
the  retarded  one  absorb.  It  is  known  that  the  drift  of  diffusion 
was  from  western  Asia  to  Greece  in  800  B.C.,  from  Greece  to 
western  Asia  in  300  B.C.  In  the  case  of  a  still  unexplained 
trait  common  to  the  two  areas  and  limited  to  them,  the  presump¬ 
tion  of  origin  would  thus  lie  in  one  or  the  other  tract  according 
to  whether  its  appearance  fell  in  the  period  of  Asiatic  or  Greek 
culture  domination.  So  in  America,  loom  weaving  is  shared 
by  Mexicans  and  Pueblos.  If  nothing  else  were  known  of  them 
except  that  the  former  but  not  the  latter  had  passed  from  oral 
tradition  to  visible  records,  there  would  be  justification  for  belief 
in  the  probability  of  importation  of  the  loom  from  Mexico  into 
the  adjacent  Southwest.  Since  this  one  item  of  Mexican  supe¬ 
riority  is  reinforced  by  the  facts  that  the  Mexicans  cultivated 
a  dozen  plants  to  the  Pueblos’  three;  that  they  were  expert  in 
several  metallurgical  processes  and  the  Pueblos  at  best,  and 
rarely,  hammered  native  copper ;  that  the  Mexicans  alone  car¬ 
ried  on  elaborate  astronomical  observations,  computed  with  large 
figures,  and  had  established  an  intercommunal  dominion,  the 
probability  of  their  priority  in  loom  weaving  becomes  so  strong 
as  to  serve  as  a  fairly  reliable  working  basis.  Still,  it  is  impor¬ 
tant  to  remember  that  in  the  absence  of  the  direct  testimony 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


333 


of  history  or  archaeology  such  a  probability  does  not  become  a 
certainty.  The  Greeks  were  without  writing,  metal  working, 
successful  astronomy,  or  empire  while  these  already  flourished 
in  Egypt  and  Asia  and  were  later  carried  to  Greece.  Yet  in 
this  general  period  the  Greeks  developed  metrical  poetry  and 
vowel  signs  for  the  alphabet. 

Another  limitation  to  the  regularity  of  the  diffusion  process 
is  to  be  found  in  the  inability  or  unreadiness  of  undeveloped 
culture  to  accept  specialized  products  of  more  advanced  civiliza¬ 
tions,*  and  of  any  culture  to  accept  traits  incompatible  with  its 
existing  customs,  except  on  severe  or  long  continued  pressure. 
A  backward  tribe  might  adopt  a  simple  iron-working  technique 
quite  avidly,  yet  find  the  manufacture  of  sewing  machines  be¬ 
yond  its  endeavors  and  wants.  Among  a  people  owning  little 
property  and  no  money  and  therefore  not  in  the  habit  of  count¬ 
ing,  and  indifferent  to  their  ages  or  the  lapse  of  time  as  expressed 
in  numbers  of  years  and  days,  a  calendar  system  like  that  of 
the  Babylonians  or  Mayas  would  certaintly  not  become  estab¬ 
lished  merely  because  of  contact.  They  might  adopt  and  make 
use  of  the  knowledge  that  there  are  some  twelve  moons  in  the 
round  of  the  seasons,  and  that  the  solstices  furnish  convenient 
starting  points  for  the  count  within  each  year.  But  generations 
and  centuries  of  gradual  preparation  through  acceptance  of 
such  elementary  fragments  of  the  elaborate  calendrical  scheme 
would  ordinarily  precede  their  ability  to  take  the  latter  over  in 
completeness.  So  with  a  religion  like  Christianity  or  Buddhism 
carried  by  a  lone  missionary,  or  shipwrecked  sailors,  to  a  people 
as  simple  in  their  life  as  the  Indians  of  California.  The  religion 
would  be  too  abstract,  too  remote,  too  dependent  on  unintelligible 
preconceptions,  to  be  embraced.  A  particular  Christian  or 
Buddhist  trait,  say  a  symbol  like  the  swastika  or  cross,  might 
conceivably  be  taken  over  and  perpetuated  as  a  decorative 
motive  or  as  a  magical  charm.  True,  if  the  missionary  came  in 
the  company  of  troops  and  settlers,  and  introduced  cattle, 
regular  meals,  comfortable  clothing,  intertribal  peace,  new  occu¬ 
pations  and  diversions,  the  old  simple  culture  would  often 
crumble  rapidly,  and  the  higher  religion  be  adopted  as  part  of 
the  larger  change,  as  indeed  happened  in  California  when  the 
Franciscans  entered  it.  But  one  would  not  argue  from  the 


334 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


convertibility  of  the  Indians  under  such  circumstances  to  their 
equal  readiness  to  accept  Buddhism  from  sporadic  East  Asiatic 
castaways. 


172.  Cultural  Abnormalities 

Now  and  then  a  condition  of  cultural  pathology  must  be  dis¬ 
counted.  About  1889  a  messianic  religious  movement  known  as 
the  Ghost-dance  fired  half  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  United 
States  for  a  few  years.  In  1891  this  had  a  wider  diffusion 
than  any  ancient  cult.  It  represented  something  struck  from 
the  contact  of  two  culture  systems :  it  was  not  of  pure  native 
evolution.  A  point  had  been  reached  where  the  old  cultures 
felt  themselves  suffocated  by  the  wave  of  Caucasian  immigration 
and  civilization.  And  in  a  last  despairing  delirium  they  flung 
forth  the  delusion  of  an  impending  cataclysm  that  would  wipe 
out  the  white  man  with  his  labor,  penalties,  and  restrictions, 
bring  back  the  extinct  buffalo,  and  restore  the  old  untrammeled 
life.  Such  a  cult  could  not  of  course  have  remained  permanently 
active.  If  analogous  excitements  occurred  in  the  prehistoric 
period,  they  died  away  without  a  trace  and  may  therefore  be 
disregarded  in  a  view  of  long  perspective.  Or  at  most  they 
served  as  ferments  productive  of  other  and  more  stable  culture 
growths.  Even  if  all  knowledge  of  American  religion  were 
blotted  out  except  its  condition  in  1891,  the  careful  investigator 
would  stand  in  no  serious  danger  of  inferring  a  high  antiquity 
from  the  broad  extent  of  the  Ghost-dance  cult,  because  of  the 
conspicuous  elements  which  it  purloined  from  that  very  Chris¬ 
tianity  and  Occidental  civilization  whose  encroachments  gave  it 
birth. 


173.  Environmental  Considerations 

Two  other  qualifications  on  the  distribution  method  must  be 
observed,  although  they  are  sufficiently  obvious  to  carry  no  great 
danger  of  oversight.  The  first  concerns  gaps  or  bounds  due  to 
physical  environment.  Metallurgy  will  not  be  practised  on  an 
isolated  coral  island.  Snowshoes  cannot  be  expected  in  equa¬ 
torial  lowlands.  The  spread  of  the  cultivation  of  a  tropical 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


335 


plant  like  manioc  is  necessarily  restricted  no  matter  how  great 
the  antiquity  of  its  use.  Limitations  of  diffusion,  or  breaks  in 
the  continuity  of  distribution,  thus  do  not  count  as  negative 
evidence  if  climate  or  soil  suffice  to  explain  them.  This  is  in 
accord  with  what  has  been  previously  formulated  (§83)  as  to 
environment  being  a  limiting  condition  rather  than  a  cause  of 
cultural  phenemona. 

Secondly,  a  marginal  area  need  not  be  literally  so.  It  may 
actually  be  nuclear.  Thus  in  the  Philippines,  older  elements 
of  culture  are  best  preserved  in  the  interiors  of  the  larger 
islands.  The  coasts  show  many  more  imported  traits.  Com¬ 
munication  in  the  archipelago  is  by  sea,  internally  as  well  as  in 
foreign  relations ;  resistance  to  travel,  conquest,  intercourse,  or 
innovation  is  by  land.  The  remote  area  as  regards  time  may 
therefore  be  a  mountain  range  fifty  miles  inland,  while  a  coast 
a  thousand  miles  away  is  near.  So  a  rough  hill  tract  in  a  level 
territory,  a  desert  encircled  by  fertile  lands,  sometimes  remain 
backward  because  they  oppose  the  same  obstacles  to  diffusion  as 
great  distances. 

It  is  thus  evident  that  valuable  as  the  distribution  principle 
is,  perhaps  most  important  of  all  non-excavating  methods  of  pre¬ 
historic  investigation,  it  can  never  be  used  mechanically.  It 
must  be  applied  with  common  sense,  and  with  open-mindedness 
toward  all  other  techniques  of  attack.  With  these  provisos  in 
mind,  let  us  approach  the  problem  of  American  culture. 

174.  Culture-areas 

The  native  cultures  of  the  New  World  are  signalized  by  the 
two  outstanding  traits  already  alluded  to.  First,  they  have  come 
to  us  virtually  in  momentary  cross  section,  flat  and  without 
perspective.  In  general  there  are  few  historic  data  extant  about 
them.  Second,  they  represent  the  civilizations  of  by  far  the 
greatest  geographical  extent  and  highest  attainment  that  have 
developed  independently,  in  the  main  at  least,  of  the  great  web 
of  culture  growths  which  appear  to  have  had  their  principal 
origin  in  the  regions  not  far  from  the  eastern  Mediterranean. 
They  offer,  accordingly,  a  separate  problem,  and  one  which,  on 
account  of  the  dearth  of  temporal  data,  has  had  to  be  approached 


336 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


through  the  medium  of  space.  As  soon,  therefore,  as  knowledge 
of  American  cultures  became  orderly,  its  organization  was  in¬ 
evitably  effected  in  terms  of  geography.  The  result  has  been 
the  recognition  of  a  series  of  culture-areas  or  culture-centers, 
several  of  which  have  already  been  referred  to  (§  150-152). 
These  geographically  defined  types  of  culture  are  gradual  and 
empirical  findings.  They  are  not  the  product  of  a  scheme  or 
imagination,  nor  the  result  of  theory.  They  are  not  even  the 
formulation  of  any  one  mind.  They  do  represent  a  consensus 
of  opinion  as  to  the  classification  of  a  mass  of  facts,  slowly 
arrived  at,  contributed  to  by  many  workers,  probably  accepted 
in  exact  identity  by  no  two  of  them  but  in  essential  outlines  by 
all ;  in  short,  a  non-philosophical,  inductive,  mainly  unimpeach¬ 
able  organization  of  phenomena  analogous  to  the  “natural” 
classification  of  animals  and  plants  on  which  systematic  biology 
rests. 

These  culture  areas,  centers,  or  types  have  been  established 
with  greater  exactitude  for  North  than  for  South  America. 
The  ten  usually  recognized  (see  Fig.  34)  are: 

1.  Arctic  or  Eskimo :  coastal 

2.  Northwest  or  North  Pacific  Coast :  also  a  coastal  strip 

3.  California  or  California-Great  Basin 

4.  Plateau :  the  northern  inter-mountain  region 

5.  Mackenzie-Yukon :  the  northern  interior  forest  and  tundra 
tract 

6.  Plains:  the  level  or  rolling  prairies  of  the  interior 

7.  Northeast  or  Northern  Woodland:  forested 

8.  Southeast  or  Southern  Woodland:  also  timbered 

9.  Southwest:  the  southern  plateau,  sub-arid 

10.  Mexico :  from  the  tropic  to  Nicaragua. 

The  only  serious  divergence  of  opinion  as  to  distinctness  or 
approximate  boundaries  might  arise  in  regard  to  numbers  4  and 
5  of  this  list.  The  culture  of  the  Mackenzie  region  is  so  defi¬ 
cient  and  colorless  that  some  students  have  hesitated  to  set  it  up 
as  a  separate  unit.  The  Plateau  culture  is  also  vague  as  to 
positive  traits.  A  plausible  argument  could  be  advanced  appor¬ 
tioning  it  between  the  adjacent  Northwest,  Plains,  California, 
and  Southwest  cultures.  In  fact,  usage  has  here  been  departed 
from  in  reckoning  the  Great  Basin,  that  part  of  the  plateau 


Fig.  34.  Culture-areas  of  America.  The  numbers  refer  to  the  names 
as  listed  on  pp.  336,  338.  (Modified  from  Wissler.) 


338  ANTHROPOLOGY 

which  is  without  ocean  drainage,  with  California  instead  of  the 
Plateau. 

The  Mexican  area  is  less  homogeneous  than  any  of  the  pre¬ 
ceding.  At  least  three  sub-centers  must  apparently  be  recog¬ 
nized  within  it :  those  of  the  Nahua  or  Aztec,  Zapotec,  and  Maya. 
The  Nahua  were  politically  and  economically  dominant  at  the 
time  of  discovery,  but  the  Maya  center  is  likely  to  be  the  oldest. 
To  it  seems  due  most  of  the  progress  achieved  in  architecture, 
sculpture,  calendry,  and  writing.  The  sources  of  knowledge  in 
the  Mexican  area  are  historic  and  archaeological  rather  than 
contemporaneously  ethnological,  and  are  available  through  the 
medium  of  Spanish  writings.  Also  the  phenomena  are  more 
diverse  and  intricate,  as  is  only  natural  with  higher  cultures. 
The  consequence  is  that  they  are  scarcely  as  well  ordered  as 
those  from  north  of  Mexico  and  have  not  yet  been  brought  into 
as  close  a  comparable  relation  with  the  latter  as  these  among 
themselves. 

South  American  cultures  seem  to  arrange  themselves  on  fewer 
lines  of  cleavage  than  those  of  the  northern  continent.  Only 
five  areas  are  as  yet  distinctly  recognizable.  This  paucity  is 
perhaps  due  to  a  less  intensive  search  for  facts  and  less  sys¬ 
tematic  attempt  to  classify  them,  so  that  future  studies  may 
increase  the  number  of  areas  recognized.  Yet  a  simplicity  of 
plan  of  culture  relationships  is  evident.  The  narrow  strip 
between  the  Andes  and  the  Pacific  is  a  region  of  rather  high 
culture  throughout,  the  whole  remainder  of  the  continent  one 
of  much  lower  and  comparatively  uniform  culture.  The  areas 
determined  are : 

11.  Colombia  or  Chibcha:  western  Colombia  with  the  nearer 
parts  of  Central  America  and  northwestern  Ecuador.  This  is 
in  the  main  a  timbered  region. 

12.  Andean  or  Peruvian :  from  southern  Ecuador  to  northern 
Chile  and  northwestern  Argentina.  This  is  distinctively  an  arid 
to  sub-arid  and  unforested  belt. 

13.  Patagonia:  characteristically  an  open,  semi-arid  country. 

14.  Tropical  Forest :  the  vast  Orinoco,  Amazon,  and  La  Plata 
drainages,  prevailingly  lowland,  humid,  and  containing  the 
greatest  forest  in  the  world.  Three  sub-regions  stand  out  with 
a  certain  ethnic  differentiation,  although  the  basis  of  their  cnl- 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


339 


ture  seems  to  be  that  of  the  woodland.  They  are :  the  savannahs 
of  the  Guiana  region ;  the  highlands  of  eastern  Brazil ;  the 
Chaco,  west  of  the  middle  La  Plata  system.  All  three  of  these 
are  open  areas  or  only  part  timbered. 

15.  Antillean:  the  West  Indies,  including  probably  the  Vene¬ 
zuela  coast.  This  culture  was  the  earliest  to  perish  in  the  New 
World.  It  received  the  first  shock  of  Caucasian  discovery  and 
settlement,  and  its  carriers  had  no  hinterland  to  which  to  re¬ 
treat.  It  is  therefore  imperfectly  known.  Its  closest  affiliations 
are  with  the  preceding  area.  In  fact,  the  Antillean  may  yet 
prove  only  a  subdivision  of  the  Tropical  Forest  culture.  In  the 
discussions  that  follow,  it  has  been  omitted,  but  can  in  the  main 
be  understood  as  included  in  what  is  said  of  the  Tropical  Forest 
area. 

175.  Diagrammatic  Representation  of  Accumulation  and 

Diffusion  of  Culture  Traits 

The  outstanding  facts  regarding  these  fourteen  or  fifteen 
culture-areas  can  be  most  vividly  presented  in  a  table  allotting 
a  column  to  each  area.  Roughly,  at  least,  these  columns  can 
follow  one  another  in  geographical  order.  In  each  column,  then, 
there  might  be  entered  all  the  culture  traits  found  in  its  area. 
If  one  culture  were  twice  as  rich  or  complex  as  another,  the 
double  number  of  entries  would  pile  up  twice  as  high  and 
impress  the  eye. 

Actually,  such  a  procedure  is  hardly  practicable.  The  number 
of  culture  elements  is  too  great.  Often  too  there  would  be  doubt 
whether  a  feature  should  be  reckoned  as  one  or  several.  Metal 
working  comprises  smelting,  casting,  forging,  alloying,  plating, 
soldering,  and  welding.  These  are  distinct  techniques.  Yet  they 
usually  occur  together  or  are  all  lacking.  One  tribe  practises 
simple  two-ply  twining.  Another  adds  three-strand,  diagonal, 
and  lattice  twining  and  three-strand  braiding,  probably  as  de¬ 
velopments  of  the  original  two-strand  process.  As  between  two 
adjacent  or  related  basket-making  peoples,  this  difference  may 
be  very  significant ;  measured  against  cloth  weaving,  it  is  trivial. 

Accordingly,  in  order  to  render  the  data  more  easily  apper- 
ceived  and  conceptualized,  only  the  more  fundamental  aspects 


340 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


of  arts  and  institutions  have  been  included  in  the  diagram  (Fig. 
35),  plus  some  that  perhaps  involve  intrinsically  less  significant 
principles  or  faculties,  hut  were  of  particular  importance  in  the 
life  of  the  peoples  following  them,  such  as  the  tipi  or  skin  tent 
of  the  Plains  tribes.  This  means  that  a  necessarily  subjective 
selection  of  traits  has  been  made  in  the  compilation  of  the  table. 
But  the  reader  who  is  not  a  specialist  in  the  matter  will  gen¬ 
erally  be  grateful  for  the  elimination;  and  this  elimination  has 
at  least  been  conducted  without  a  conscious  bias  in  any  one 
direction.  If  anything,  it  would  seem  that  the  selective  con¬ 
densation  has  operated  against  the  preeminence  of  the  advanced 
areas.  With  every  possible  datum  inserted,  the  peaks  in  the 
table  would  probably  overshadow  the  valleys  much  more  con¬ 
spicuously. 

Accepting  the  diagram,  then,  as  affording  an  approximately 
truthful  picture,  it  is  obvious  that  much  the  greatest  advance¬ 
ment  took  place  in  Middle  America — the  region  from  Mexico  to 
Peru ;  and  that  on  the  whole  the  majority  of  culture  traits  found 
in  any  of  the  more  backward  areas  are  shared  with  this  middle 
region.  These  are  the  traits  below  the  heavy  line  that  steps  up 
and  down  across  the  diagram.  A  minority  of  traits — those  above 
the  heavy  line — are  local  to  the  several  areas.  On  the  basic 
principle  that  a  trait  occurring  over  a  continuous  territory  may 
be  assumed  to  have  originated  but  once  and  to  have  spread  by 
diffusion,  the  bulk  of  the  culture  of  most  of  the  areas  must  have 
come  into  them  from  outside.  On  the  principle  that  a  people 
with  many  established  arts  is  more  likely  to  make  a  new  inven¬ 
tion  than  is  a  retarded  people,  the  great  majority  of  the  dif¬ 
fused  elements  may  therefore  be  attributed  to  a  Middle  Ameri¬ 
can  source.  In  this  region,  then,  lay  the  focal  point,  the  hive, 
of  American  civilization.  From  it,  the  tribes  of  the  Lower 
Amazon  and  the  upper  Mississippi  equally  derived  most  of  the 
limited  culture  which  they  possessed. 

In  South  America,  the  diffusion  proceeded  broadside  from 
the  length  of  the  Andes.  In  North  America,  it  radiated  fan- 
wise  from  the  south  Mexican  angle,  the  Southwest  serving  as 
the  gateway  or  first  relaying  station  that  let  through  most  but 
not  all  of  what  it  received.  One  area  alone,  the  Northwest 


ARCTIC  :  NORTHWEST  |  CALIFORNIA  |  PLATEAU  ] MACKENZIE- YUKOM  !  PLAINS  i  NORTHEAST  !  SOUTHEAST  i  SOUTHWEST 


i  MEXICO 

COLOMBIA 

ANDEAN 

Books 

Feather  Mosaics 

Rebus  Writing 

Bronze 

Cycle  Calendar 

Coca  Chewing 

Astronomy 

Llama 

Mathematic 

5 

Pan’s  Pipe 

Dag  Courv 

Roads 

24  Empire 

Stools 

24  Empire 

23  Templef 

Coca  Chewing 

23  Temples 

i  TROPICAL  FOREST!  PATAGONIA 


22  Human  Sacrifice 


21  Markets 


20  Smelting.Casting,  Alloying,  Plating,  Joining  of  Metals 


19  Varied  Agriculture 


18  Sculpture 


Totem  Pole  Art 

Ground  Painting 

17  Confederocg 

Potlatch 

16  Priesthood 

Stools 

Wealth  Aristocracy 

Matrilinear  Clans 

15  Textile  C 

lothinq  ond  Sandals 

Lip  Plug 

14  MaTri linear^ 

o 

Hammock 

Overlag  Twining 

17 

13  Cotton  Growing  and  Loom  Weaving 

Pan’s  Pipe 

Dog  Sled 

Hats 

Birchbark  Vessels 

14 

12 

Town  Life 

Cassava 

Cooking  Lamp 

Dentalium 

5 jgilgpgd'dkjfi  Ctaftiing 

12  Town  Life 

II  Stone  Buildings 

10  Blow  Gun 

II 

13  14 

D  Skin  Boat 

v'V. -a  .1 

3  Smew-bocked  Bqw 

Counting  Coup 

10  Blow  Gun 

Calendar 

10  Blow  Gun 

CfpilsredS(imCloHiing 
— * - ■'  - - - -  - 

Boxes 

Camp  Circle 

3  Pottery 

BS)ne^;bockeci$pw-; 

Solstitial  Calendar 

B.Sinevy^gcked  'Bo  iy 

Tipi  and  Travois 

7  Maize  Beans  Squash  Agriculture 

6AB 

■A Coiled  Basketry 

CToifgrcd  §kin  Cldljmd 

6A  Initiating  Societies  and 

9 

5  Suspended  Warp 

6  A 

B.^inpyv^^ed  Bow  Birchbark  Vessels 

5  Suspended  Warp  or  Simple  Weaving  Frame 

Solas 

8 

4  Patrilinear  Clans 

A  Coiled  By  she  tr  ytC  To.  ored 'Sb-T  Clclhlng 

4  Patrilinear  Clans  t rlli  ne  ar  J.C  1  a  Vi  s ? 

Coiled  Bosketrg 

6B 

3  Tobacco  I^Cojl^d^asketr^ 

3  Tobacco 

6  B 

_ 2  SPegr  _ 2 

Spear  -  Th 

1  Dog,  Bow,  Harpoon,  Firedrill,  Woven  and  Twined  Basketrg,  Family  Groups,  Men’s  House,  Shamanism,  Crisis  Ceremonies,  especially  for  t 

Jirls  at  Pubertg  ond  Whipping  of  Bogs 

for!  “is  £sr$  -r*  *rr  r  wr  r  -  ^  *«*  * 

in  Middle  America,  to  fall  away  towards  the  peripheries.  Hatching  indicates  elements  that  mav  once  hfve  elil/  ,  rapreSentatl™  ,°f  quantity  or  elaboration  of  culture  content,  which  towers  impressively 

the  heavy  line  are  local  developments.  °  elenumta  that  may  °“Ce  have  existed  111  areas  but  are  now  lack>“gi  stippling,  elements  perhaps  introduced  from  Asia.  Entries  above 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


341 


Coast,  was  reached  but  imperfectly  by  Middle  American  influ¬ 
ences,  yet  attained  a  tolerable  development  through  its  own 
creative  force,  supplemented  in  some  measure  by  the  drift  into 
it  of  sporadic  culture  element  migrants  from  Asia.  Here  only, 
then,  there  occurred  a  markedly  independent  growth  of  civiliza¬ 
tion,  though  definitely  secondary  to  the  great  evolution  of  Middle 
America  which  in  the  main  determined  the  culture  of  the  twin 
continents. 

176.  Representation  Showing  Contemporaneity  and 
Narrative  Representation 

So  far  as  possible,  the  traits  in  each  column  of  the  diagram 
have  been  disposed  in  the  order  of  their  presumptive  appearance 
in  time.  In  the  lowest  level,  for  instance,  have  been  set  those 
elements  that  are  likely  to  have  been  common  to  all  the  first 
immigrants  into  America.  Local  developments  tending  on  the 
whole  to  be  late,  have  been  placed  toward  the  heads  of  columns ; 
and,  roughly  throughout,  widely  diffused  and  therefore  appar¬ 
ently  early  elements  are  nearer  the  bottom.  In  general,  accord¬ 
ingly,  the  secpience  upward  of  traits  indicates  their  approximate 
sequence  in  time.  But  this  arrangement  obviously  holds  chiefly 
for  each  column  as  a  unit.  As  between  the  columns,  it  breaks 
down,  since  the  top  of  each  column  would  represent  the  same 
period,  the  moment  of  discovery,  and  these  tops  are  not  on  a 
level. 

The  display  of  the  same  data  in  such  a  manner  that  vertical 
position  would  adequately  represent  proportional  lapse  of  time 
as  the  horizontal  placing  suggests  geographical  contiguity, 
would  necessitate  another  arrangement.  In  such  a  diagram 
the  height  of  each  column  would  be  the  same,  but  the  richer 
cultures  would  have  their  constituent  elements  more  closely 
crowded.  That  is,  each  new  invention  or  institution  or  impor¬ 
tation  followed  more  rapidly  on  its  predecessor  than  in  the 
peripheral  areas.  For  instance,  while  maize  agriculture  was 
spreading  from  Middle  America  to  the  Southwest  and  thence  to 
the  Northeast,  the  Middle  Americans  were  adding  varied  agri¬ 
culture  and  metallurgy,  human  sacrifice,  and  astronomy.  The 


342 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


strata  in  the  diagram  would  therefore  generally  not  be  level 
but  would  slope  upward  from  their  origin  in  the  middle.  This 
would  be  a  more  accurate  schematic  representation  of  what 
happened. 

On  the  other  hand,  difficulties  would  arise  in  the  graphic 
representation.  The  domestication  of  the  llama,  for  instance, 
is  confined  to  a  single  area,  the  Andean.  Yet  the  domestication 
is  rather  ancient,  as  archaeological  discoveries  prove;  perhaps 
older  than  the  spread  of  many  culture  elements  from  the  Andes 
into  the  Tropical  Forest,  or  from  Mexico  into  the  United  States. 
The  llama  could  therefore  not  be  placed  properly  near  the  head 
of  the  column  representing  Andean  culture,  because  the  top 
of  this  column  would  signify  recency.  It  would  have  to  be 
inserted  lower  down,  thus  breaking  the  continuity  of  strata 
extending  through  several  areas.  Thus  the  diagram  would 
quickly  become  so  intricate  as  to  lose  its  graphic  value. 

It  would  simplify  the  problem  if  the  large  mass  of  culture 
elements  could  be  segregated  into  a  small  number  of  groups, 
each  assignable  to  a  stratum  or  period,  much  as  the  constituents 
of  the  religion  and  then  of  the  whole  culture  of  the  California 
Indians  were  analyzed  and  then  regrouped  in  the  preceding 
chapter.  Such  a  procedure,  however,  is  much  easier  and  more 
accurate  for  the  subdivisions  of  one  limited  area  than  for  an 
entire  hemisphere,  because  the  interrelations  of  the  areas  con¬ 
stituting  this  are  naturally  very  complex  and  at  many  points 
imperfectly  known.  Such  a  schematic  representation  of  the 
course  of  culture  in  the  whole  of  the  Americas  on  the  basis  of 
as  many  traits  as  are  included  in  Figure  35,  is  therefore  not 
attempted  here.  Instead,  there  is  reproduced  an  analogous  but 
simpler  scheme  (Fig.  36)  recently  published  by  an  author  whose 
primary  concern  is  with  Middle  America,  who  has  presented 
his  story  in  the  form  of  a  treatment  by  larger  periods,  and  in 
his  diagram  extends  these  to  the  remainder  of  the  two  conti¬ 
nents.  If  his  figure  seems  different  from  the  preceding  one,  it 
should  be  remembered  that  the  two  approaches  are  not  only 
from  somewhat  different  angles  but  independent  of  each  other, 
besides  which  it  will  be  found  that  the  divergence  between  the 
two  illustrations  (Figs.  35  and  36)  is  more  apparent  than  in¬ 
trinsic. 


SOUTHERN 


SOUTHERN 


AMAZON 


CENTRAL 


PERUVIAN 


CANADIAN 

FOREST 


COLOMBIAN 


FOREST 


PLAINS 


MAYAN 


SOUTHWEST 


ARCTIC 


GREAT  PLAINS 


MEXICAN 


sTORV 


RECORQCq 


Xhiblcha 


Influence 


Ma/op»f 


League 


sition 


Tiahuenaco 


Pueblos 


Zapotac 


Chorale 


Totonac 


Great 


Archaic 


Small  Hous« 
People 


'Horizon — of 


e  con  o' 


Ancon  tfr 

Shell  Heaps  Jp 


Middle 


Archaic 


Basket 

Makers 


and  Loom  Weaving 


u  of  AjHculture,  Pottery 

Archaic 


Primary  Distribute 
Lower 


nvention  ot 


Agricultun 


NomajjiC  ,  Noi 


!cn nara1'ea^>^ 


Prlmai/  Invasion  from  Asia  via  Alaska  on  upper  Paleolithic  or  lower 
Neolithic,  without  agriculture,  pottery  or  loom  weaving 
15000 — 10000  bc 


Fig.  36.  Diagrammatic  representation  by  Spinden  of  the  development  of  native  American  culture.  Fewer  elements  of  culture  are  included 
than  in  figure  35,  but  these  are  definitely  placed  according  to  their  indicated  sequence  in  time.  While  this  diagram  was  prepared  with  particular 
reference  to  Middle  American  civilization  and  therefore  has  reference  only  to  the  culture  areas  cut  by  the  line  ABCD,  and  while  it  carries  the 
peopling  of  the  continent  a  few  thousand  years  hack  of  the  time  assumed  in  this  book,  it  is  in  substantial  agreement  with  the  views  expressed 
in  the  present  chapter. 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


343 


At  best,  however,  all  diagrams  are  not  only  schematic  but 
static ;  and  it  may  accordingly  be  worth  while  to  try  to  narrate 
some  of  the  principal  events  of  the  history  of  American  civiliza¬ 
tion  in  order  to  bring  out  their  continuity  and  relations  as  they 
appear  in  perspective.  But  the  reader  must  remember  that  this 
is  a  reconstruction  from  indirect  and  often  imperfect  evidence, 
probably  correct  in  the  large  and  in  many  details,  certain  to  be 
incorrect  in  some  proportion  of  its  findings,  tentative  throughout 
and  subject  to  revision  as  the  future  brings  fuller  insight.  It 
aims  to  give  the  truth  as  it  can  be  pieced  together:  it  is  never 
a  directly  documented  story  like  those  familiar  to  us  from 
orthodox  “ history.’ ’ 

177.  Racial  Origin  of  the  American  Indians 

The  American  race  can  hardly  have  come  from  anywhere  else 
than  Asia:  it  entered  the  New  World  perhaps  ten  thousand  years 
ago.  Its  affiliations,  as  previously  set  forth  (§  23,  25)  are 
generically  Mongoloid.  This  statement  does  not  mean  that  the 
American  Indians  are  descended  from  the  Chinese  or  Japanese, 
any  more  than  the  fact  that  these  are  denominated  Mongolians 
implies  belief  in  their  descent  from  the  particular  modern 
people  known  as  the  Mongols.  We  call  ourselves  Caucasians 
without  any  intimation  that  our  ancestors  lived  in  the  Cau¬ 
casus  mountains  or  that  the  present  inhabitants  of  the  Cau¬ 
casus  are  a  purer  and  more  representative  stock  than  we. 
So  the  Mongolians  are  that  group  of  “yellow”  peoples  of 
eastern  Asia  of  whom  the  Mongols  form  part ;  and  the  Mongo¬ 
loids  are  the  larger  group  that  takes  in  Mongolians,  East  In¬ 
dians,  and  Americans.  From  the  original  proto-Mongoloid  stem, 
all  three  divisions  and  their  subdivisions  have  sprung  and  dif¬ 
ferentiated.  The  American  Indians  have  probably  remained 
closer  to  it  than  the  Chinese.  It  would  be  more  correct  to  say 
that  the  Chinese  have  developed  out  of  an  ancient  Indian-like 
stock,  acquiring  slant  eyes  rather  late. 

The  proto-Mongoloid  stem  must  be  ten  thousand  years  old. 
It  is  probably  much  older.  In  the  Aurignacian  period,  the 
third  from  the  last  in  the  Old  Stone  Age,  twenty-five  thousand 
or  so  years  ago,  possibly  longer,  the  two  other  great  types  of 


344 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


living  men  were  already  rather  well  characterized.  The  fossil 
Grimaldi  race  of  this  period  shows  pretty  clear  Negroid  affini¬ 
ties;  the  contemporary  Cro-Magnon  race  can  probably  be  reck¬ 
oned  as  proto-Caucasian.  It  is  therefore  probable,  although  as 
yet  unproved  by  discoveries,  that  the  proto-Mongoloids  were  also 
already  in  existence. 

178.  The  Time  of  the  Peopling  of  America 

About  the  end  of  the  Palaeolithic  or  beginning  of  the  Neo¬ 
lithic  some  of  these  proto-Mongoloids  drifted  from  Asia  into 
North  America.  These  were  probably  the  real  discoverers  of 
the  New  World,  which  they  found  inhabited  only  by  brutes. 
The  time  of  their  invasion  can  be  but  roughly  fixed,  yet  within 
its  limits  it  seems  fairly  reliable.  Had  the  migration  occurred 
much  later,  when  the  Neolithic  was  already  well  under  way,  the 
domesticated  animals  and  plants  of  the  Old  World  would  have 
been  introduced — cattle,  pigs,  sheep,  wheat,  barley,  rice,  millet, 
all  of  which  the  Americans  lacked.  The  same  holds  for  inven¬ 
tions  like  the  wheel. 

Analogous  arguments  weigh  against  a  belief  in  a  possible 
earlier  peopling  of  America,  say  in  the  middle  Pakeolithic.  In 
that  event  there  ought  to  be  cave  or  rock  shelter  or  river  terrace 
deposits  corresponding  to  those  of  Europe  in  containing  only 
implements  of  Palaeolithic  type.  But  none  such  have  been  found 
in  America,  or  where  alleged,  their  circumstances  have  remained 
matters  of  controversy. 

Further,  if  Pakeolithic  man  had  inhabited  the  western  hemi¬ 
sphere,  it  is  likely  that  his  fossil  remains  would  have  come  to 
light.  There  has  been  much  excavation,  and  numerous  investi¬ 
gators  are  alive  to  the  importance  which  evidence  of  this  sort 
would  bear.  Yet  to  date  not  a  single  human  fossil  of  positively 
Pleistocene  age  or  type  has  been  discovered.  Numerous  sensa¬ 
tional  finds  have  been  announced.  But  in  every  case  their  geo¬ 
logical  matrix  or  stratum  has  been  proved  either  recent  or  open 
to  doubt.  And  not  a  single  fragment  of  a  skeleton  of  Nean- 
dertal  type,  or  one  equally  different  from  modern  man,  is  on 
record  from  America.  Every  once  alleged  Pleistocene  skull  or 
part  appears  to  belong  to  some  branch  of  the  American  Indian 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA  345 

race  as  it  exists  to-day.  It  is  therefore  unlikely  that  man 
reached  America  before  the  last  stage  of  the  Palaeolithic. 

If  the  date  of  the  entry  is  set  at  ten  thousand  years  ago,  the 
elapsed  period  accounts  very  well  for  the  present  diversification 
of  the  American  race.  There  are  broad  and  narrow  headed 
tribes,  tall  and  short  ones,  some  with  hooked  noses,  others  with 
slightly  wavy  hair.  But  the  fundamental  type  is  everywhere  the 
same.  The  differences  seem  just  such  as  environment  and  mode 
of  life,  the  accidents  of  descent  from  small  groups,  and  perhaps 
a  slight  effect  of  selection,  would  be  certain  to  accomplish  in 
time.  In  general,  the  natives  of  America  are  remarkably  homo¬ 
geneous,  considering  the  vast  territory  they  occupy,  its  varia¬ 
tions  of  temperature,  humidity,  altitude,  and  food  supply,  and 
the  marked  differences  in  the  living  customs  of  many  tribes. 
The  one  group  that  at  all  stand  apart  are  the  Eskimo ;  and  these 
are  distinct  in  language  and  culture  also.  Moreover,  they  occupy 
the  parts  nearest  to  Asia,  including  both  sides  of  Behring 
Strait.  Thus  they  seem  to  represent  a  separate  origin.  But 
all  the  other  groups  from  Alaska  to  Patagonia  are  so  closely 
related  somatically,  that  no  comprehensive  and  generally  ac¬ 
cepted  sub-classification  of  them  has  yet  been  possible.  In  fact, 
the  American  race  seems  almost  too  undifferentiated  to  require 
ten  thousand  years  for  its  superficial  diversifications ;  until  it 
is  remembered  that  human  races  left  to  themselves  seem  in  most 
cases  to  alter  rather  slowly.  Mixture  is  one  of  the  greatest 
factors  of  racial  change,  and  in  the  isolation  of  America  this 
element  was  eliminated  to  a  much  larger  extent  than  in  most 
of  the  Old  World. 

179.  Linguistic  Diversification 

Language  tells  a  similar  story.  The  American  Indian  lan¬ 
guages  certainly  appear  to  be  diverse.  It  has  been  customary 
to  reckon  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  distinct  speech  families  in 
North  and  South  America  (§50).  But  many  of  these  are  im¬ 
perfectly  known ;  of  late  several  Americanist  philologists  have 
been  inclined  to  see  definite  resemblances  between  numerous 
tongues  that  are  superficially  different.  Buried  and  disguised 
resemblances  are  being  noted,  which  point  to  original  unity. 


346 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


Thus  the  number  of  genetically  distinct  families  or  language 
stocks  is  shrinking.  The  number  to  be  ultimately  recognized 
bids  fair  to  be  small. 

Old  World  conditions  are  at  bottom  more  similar  than  at  first 
glance  seems.  English  and  the  modern  Hindu  languages,  such 
as  Bengali,  although  certainly  related,  are  quite  different  from 
each  other.  The  proof  of  their  common  Indo-European  origin 
rests  largely  on  the  similarities  between  their  ancestral  forms, 
Anglo-Saxon  and  Sanskrit.  These  in  turn  are  tied  together 
more  closely  by  the  connecting  evidence  of  other  ancient  lan¬ 
guages,  such  as  Greek  and  Latin.  Take  away  these  extinct 
tongues  and  the  modern  transitional  ones,  imagine  English  and 
Bengali  to  be  the  only  representatives  of  Indo-European,  and 
it  is  doubtful  whether  their  common  parentage  could  be  wholly 
proved.  The  relationship  would  certainly  not  be  readily  recogniz¬ 
able  ;  the  most  painstaking  analysis  would  reveal  so  many  words 
wholly  peculiar  to  each  language,  and  so  many  exceptions  to 
every  suggestion  of  regular  sound  equivalences,  that  conserva¬ 
tive  philologists  would  perhaps  refuse  to  commit  themselves  on 
the  problem  of  a  single  origin. 

This  imaginary  situation  parallels  the  actual  one  in  American 
linguistics.  Not  a  single  ancient  form  of  speech  has  been  pre¬ 
served.  Many  living  ones  are  inadequately  known.  The  fact 
that  some  enthusiast  has  compiled  a  grammar  of  Nahuatl  or 
Quechua  or  Eskimo  does  not  necessarily  mean  that  he  has  dis¬ 
sected  out  its  whole  structure.  A  book  devoted  to  a  language 
may  be  as  superficial  as  it  looks  learned.  And  the  man  who 
really  knew  Nahuatl  has  usually  concerned  himself  very  little 
with  Quechua.  So  far  as  he  might  become  acquainted  with  it, 
it  would  appear  so  different  that  the  pressing  of  comparisons 
would  seem  sterile.  Thus  the  great  diversity  of  American  lan¬ 
guages  came  to  be  accepted  not  because  any  one  believed  it  to 
have  been  really  established,  but  because  until  recently  no 
critical  scholar  considered  himself  able  to  establish  serious  con¬ 
nections.  It  has  been  a  case  of  unproved  rather  than  disproved 
unity  of  origin. 

If  the  Indo-European  languages  were  not  our  own  but  those 
of  a  strange  race  and  therefore  known  to  us  much  less  inten¬ 
sively  ;  if  the  history  of  their  ancient  forms  were  obliterated 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


347 


instead  of  preserved  for  ns  for  over  three  thousand  years;  and 
if  they  were  allowed  a  period  of  ten  thousand  years  in  which 
to  have  differentiated,  philology  would  probably  be  assigning 
them  to  several  distinct  stocks.  Multiply  by  three  the  amount 
of  difference  which  Bengali  shows  from  Sanskrit,  and  by  six 
that  of  English  from  Anglo-Saxon,  and  a  degree  of  divergence 
might  be  attained  roughly  comparable  to  that  between  Nahuatl 
and  Quechua,  or  Maya  and  Iroquois.  This  is  not  an  assertion 
that  Nahuatl  and  Quechua  are  related.  It  is  a  claim  that  in  the 
light  of  present  knowledge  they  might  have  been  one  language 
ten  thousand  years  ago.  A  single  people  with  a  single  speech 
could  well  have  given  rise  in  so  long  a  period  as  that — three 
hundred  generations — to  languages  that  now  seem  so  different. 

And  at  that,  there,  is  no  reason  for  believing  that  all  the 
American  languages  are  necessarily  derivable  from  a  single 
mother  tongue.  There  might  have  been  half-a-dozen  or  a  dozen 
idioms  in  use  among  as  many  populations  which  moved  out  of 
Asia  into  Alaska.  For  of  course  it  is  improbable  that  the  migra¬ 
tion  was  an  isolated,  unitary  event.  More  likely  it  tilled  a  period 
of  some  length,  during  which  a  succession  of  waves  of  popu¬ 
lation  lapped  from  one  continent  into  the  other.  Each  of  these 
waves,  which  only  the  perspective  of  ages  has  merged  into  the 
appearance  of  a  single  movement,  may  have  brought*  its  own 
speech,  from  which  in  time  there  branched  out  languages  that 
ultimately  became  so  differentiated  as  to  appear  now  like  dis¬ 
tinct  families.  Not  that  it  is  known  that  this  happened;  but  it 
seems  inherently  plausible  that  it  might  have  happened,  and 
there  is  no  present  evidence  to  the  contrary. 

In  short,  philology  interposes  no  obstacle  to  the  acceptance 
of  the  date  which  has  been  assumed  as  roughly  defining  the 
period  of  the  peopling  of  America. 

180.  The  Primitive  Culture  of  the  Immigrants 

As  to  the  culture  the  immigrants  brought  with  them,  direct 
testimony  being  lacking,  it  is  necessary  to  fall  back  on  the  work¬ 
ing  hypothesis  that  this  culture  was  about  the  equivalent  of  the 
most  backward  American  culture  of  to-day ;  or,  better,  of  the 
common  denominator  of  all  American  cultures,  including  the 


348 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


lowest.  This  procedure  yields  the  group  of  elements  entered 
in  the  bottommost  layer  of  Figure  35.  These  elements  were 
either  brought  along  on  the  invasions  or  developed  so  soon  after¬ 
wards  as  to  become  equally  widely  diffused.  The  harpoon,  for 
instance,  was  used  in  Europe  in  the  Magdalenian — at  the  close 
of  the  Palaeolithic.  For  the  bow  and  arrow,  there  is  no  proof 
in  Europe  until  the  opening  of  the  Neolithic.  The  dog,  the 
earliest  animal  attached  to  man,  is  known  from  the  same  period, 
whereas  cattle,  swine,  and  sheep  were  kept  only  at  the  height 
of  the  Neolithic  (§  67,  222).  As  the  American  Indians  possess 
dogs,  it  is  difficult  to  attribute  the  custom  otherwise  than  to  a 
heritage  from  the  same  culture  stage  in  the  Old  World  to  which 
the  harpoon  and  bow  belong.  This  connection  is  made  more 
certain  by  the  fact  that  the  Indian  dog  is  most  closely  related 
not  to  the  specifically  American  coyote  but  to  the  circumpolar 
wolf  and  perhaps  the  jackal,  and  diverged  into  much  the  same 
types  of  breeds  as  the  Old  World  clog.  There  are  American 
races  of  dogs — some  of  them  ancient,  as  represented  by  skeletons 
from  mounds,  and  mummies  from  Arizona  and  Peru — that  are 
respectively  droop  eared,  curly  tailed,  short  legged,  long  furred, 
hairless,  or  undershot  in  the  jaw,  thus  corresponding  closely  to 
the  breeds  evolved  with  similar  traits  in  the  eastern  hemisphere, 
and  virtually  forcing  the  conclusion  that  the  dog  was  brought 
into  America  by  man  and  not  domesticated  from  a  wild  species 
in  this  continent. 

Such  evidence  as  this  it  is  that  yields  the  period  indicated — 
the  closing  stages  of  the  Paleolithic  or  earliest  Neolithic — as  the 
time  of  man’s  entry  into  America.  The  ten  thousand  years  set 
as  the  lapse  since  this  event  are  admittedly  more  arbitrary. 
No  one  pretends  to  date  the  remoter  stages  of  European  pre¬ 
history  exactly.  Relative  durations  are  all  that  it  is  legitimate 
to  pin  much  faith  on.  Dates  are  avowedly  approximations.  The 
estimate  here  chosen  for  the  end  of  the  Pakeolithic  is  8000  B.C. 
— ten  thousand  years  ago.  This  round  number,  not  taken  too 
literally,  has  the  virtue  of  concreteness  and  seems  somewhere 
near  the  truth.  It  may  yet  prove  to  be  a  few  thousand  years 
short  or  over.  But  it  does  allow  enough  time,  and  no  obtrusive 
excess  of  time,  for  the  diversification  of  the  Indians  in  race, 
speech,  and  culture;  and  this  seeming  accord  of  the  assumption 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


349 


with  the  present  facts  may  be  taken  as  a  rough  corroboration. 

The  other  culture  elements  assigned  in  Figure  35  to  the  first 
or  immigrant  stratum  cannot  be  dated  by  any  concrete  remains, 
since  some  are  institutions  and  others  are  arts  whose  materials 
are  perishable — baskets  and  fire-drills,  for  instance.  They  are, 
however,  found  among  all  or  most  of  the  lower  American  tribes, 
and  recur  more  or  less  widely  in  the  eastern  hemisphere. 

The  first  settlers  may  accordingly  be  pictured  as  a  people 
living  off  nature ;  hunting,  fishing,  gathering  roots  and  fruits 
and  seeds,  digging  or  picking  shellfish.  Their  best  weapons 
were  the  bow  and  the  harpoon  with  detachable  head.  The  latter 
may  already  have  been  propelled  by  the  atlatl  or  spear-thrower, 
an  artificial  extension  of  the  arm.  Simpler  weapons  were  also 
used:  clubs,  stones,  probably  darts  and  spears,  perhaps  daggers 
of  bone  or  stone.  Flint  was  chipped  and  flaked,  other  stones 
were  beginning  to  be  ground  or  rubbed  into  form.  Bone  awls 
served  for  piercing ;  less  certainly,  eyed  needles  for  sewing. 
Cordage  of  bast  was  twisted,  and  in  all  likelihood  baskets,  bins, 
weirs,  traps  were  woven  or  twined,  perhaps  also  nets  made. 
Dogs  were  alternately  played  with  and  kicked  about;  they  were 
half  kept,  half  tolerated,  probably  eaten  in  time  of  need.  There 
was  no  organization  of  society  but  on  a  basis  of  blood  and  con¬ 
tiguity.  Related  groups  would  act  together  until  they  fell  apart. 
Labor  was  sex  allotted;  the  men  of  each  community  possibly 
maintained  a  house  or  place  of  meeting  at  which  they  gathered 
in  their  leisure,  perhaps  nightly,  and  which  women  feared  to 
enter.  Beliefs  in  souls  and  spirits  were  already  immemorially 
old.  The  people  had  risen  to  the  point  of  being  no  longer  pas¬ 
sive  toward  the.  immaterial ;  the  most  intense-minded  among  them 
aspired  to  communication  with  the  spirits ;  they  demonstrated 
to  their  fellows  their  control  and  utilization  of  supernatural 
beings,  and  were  what  we  call  shamans.  Custom  in  fact  con¬ 
ceded  the  influence  of  the  spiritual  world  on  every  human  being, 
and  felt  it  to  be  strongest  at  times  of  passage  or  crisis — birth, 
maturity,  death.  Puberty  in  particular  seemed  important,  as 
portentous  of  the  whole  of  adult  life.  The  welfare  of  the  indi¬ 
vidual  and  his  proper  relation  to  the  community  were  therefore 
sought  to  be  insured  by  spiritual  safe-guarding.  Girls  were 
secluded,  treated  or  doctored,  trained ;  boys  subjected  to  whip- 


350 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


ping  or  other  ordeals  of  fortitude ;  the  passing  of  such  initiation 
admitted  them  to  the  men’s  house. 

181.  The  Route  of  Entry  into  the  Western  Hemisphere 

With  such  background  man  entered  America  at  Behring 
Strait.  He  may  have  navigated;  more  likely,  or  more  often,  he 
crossed  on  the  ice.  The  water  ciistance  is  only  about  sixty  miles ; 
the  Diomede  islands  lie  near  the  middle  of  the  gap ;  and  the 
ice  may  have  extended  across  pretty  continuously,  ten  thousand 
years  nearer  the  peak  of  the  last  glaciation.  Long  before,  there 
had  been  a  land  bridge  from  Siberia  to  Alaska,  by  which  horses, 
camels,  cattle,  elephants,  deer  and  many  other  species  extended 
their  range  from  one  continent  to  another.  But  this  was  in 
geological  antiquity,  man’s  entry  in  geological  recency — im¬ 
mediacy,  rather;  and  the  divided  configuration  of  the  continents 
was  probably  already  established.  Horses  had  become  extinct 
in  the  New  World  when  man  arrived,  the  elephant  tribe  prob¬ 
ably  also.  Llamas,  pumas,  jaguars  took  the  place  of  Old  World 
camels,  lions,  tigers.  The  fauna  of  the  Americas,  their  vegeta¬ 
tion,  their  climate,  were  nearly  as  they  are  to-day. 

The  Aleutian  islands  have  also  been  suggested  as  a  migration 
route.  But  their  chain  is  long,  the  gap  at  the  western  end  one 
of  hundreds  of  miles  of  open  water,  scarcely  negotiable  except 
to  rather  expert  navigators.  Still  weaker  would  be  any  sup¬ 
position  of  arrival  from  Polynesia.  Here  the  distances  between 
the  nearest  islands  and  the  mainland  run  to  thousands  of  miles. 
Only  well-equipped  voyagers  could  survive,  and  there  is  nothing 
to  prove  positively  that  even  late  Palaeolithic  man  had  boats. 
Further,  all  the  Polynesian  evidence  points  to  a  late  settling  of 
the  eastern  islands  of  the  Pacific ;  a  few  thousand  years  ago 
at  most.  Exclusion  therefore  indicates  the  Behring  route  as  the 
only  one  to  be  seriously  considered. 

The  migration  was  scarcely  a  sudden  or  single  one.  It  went 
on  for  generations,  perhaps  for  thousands  of  years  in  driblets. 
Two  or  three  explorers  would  set  across  and  return,  to  be  fol¬ 
lowed  by  a  few  families.  Others  succeeded  them.  There  would 
be  no  crowding,  for  a  long  time  no  resistance  at  the  strait  on 
the  part  of  jealous  established  settlers.  The  open  south,  always 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


351 


milder,  generally  more  fruitful  the  farther  one  went,  lay  ahead. 
It  must  long  have  drawn  immigrants  away  from  the  strait  faster 
than  they  crossed  it.  Some  of  the  invading  bands  almost  cer¬ 
tainly  differed  from  one  another  in  customs,  perhaps  perceptibly 
in  appearance,  though  of  one  general  level  of  culture. 

182.  The  Spread  Over  Two  Continents 

Before  them  lay  fifteen  million  miles  of  tundra,  forest,  plains, 
sea  coast,  desert,  savannah,  jungle,  and  plateaux,  rich  in  this  or 
that  food,  with  no  occupant  to  dispute  possession  or  block  travel 
but  bear,  wolf,  puma,  and  jaguar — timid  beasts  compared  with 
those  of  the  Old  World.  So  the  immigrants  pushed  across  the 
breadth  of  the  continent  and  down  its  length,  entered  the  tropics 
in  Mexico,  defiled  through  Panama — and  a  second  continent 
stretched  before  them.  How  long  it  took  the  first  wanderers  to 
diffuse  themselves  from  Alaska  to  the  Strait  of  Magellan,  it  is 
impossible  to  say.  Perhaps  a  couple  of  thousand  years,  perhaps 
only  a  few  hundred.  Curiosity,  the  desire  to  see,  are  strong  in 
men  if  fear  imposes  no  restraints. 

Sooner  or  later,  at  any  rate,  they  were  living  throughout  both 
continents.  The  advance  guard  had  long  lost  knowledge  of  the 
rear,  if  indeed  the  rear  did  not  arrive  until  after  the  advance 
could  progress  no  farther.  When  the  Caucasian  discovered 
America  he  might  have  commenced  at  Cape  Horn,  gone  on  to  a 
people  whose  very  existence  was  unknown  to  those  at  his  starting 
point,  and  repeated  the  step  a  dozen  times  until  his  journey 
brought  him  to  the  Arctic.  Before  the  rise  of  the  empires  of 
Mexico  and  Peru  the  number  of  links  in  the  chain  ignorant  of 
each  other  would  have  been  greater.  The  moving  bands  of  the 
primitive  first-comers  no  doubt  lost  touch  with  each  other 
quickly  in  even  shorter  stretches.  Thus  diversities  of  speech,  of 
mode  of  life,  would  become  established.  A  family  of  brothers 
might  become  dominant  in  a  band  through  the  number  of  their 
descendants  and  so  color  the  somatic  type  of  the  group,  which 
in  turn,  favored  by  fortune  and  expanding,  might  lay  the 
hereditary  foundation  for  a  sub-racial  variety. 

Movements  of  population  continued  to  occur  until  the  present. 
The  maps  of  speech  stocks  previously  presented  (Pigs.  14,  15) 


352 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


prove  that  distant  migrations  took  place  after  great  groups  like 
Athabascan,  Algonkin,  Uto-Aztecan,  Arawak,  Tupi,  had  each 
lived  in  compact  coherence  long  enough  to  establish  a  well 
defined  language.  But  so  far  as  these  more  recent  migrations 
can  be  traced  from  speech,  they  no  longer  trended  prevailingly 
from  north  to  south  and  west  to  east  as  the  first  general  diffu¬ 
sion  must  have  moved,  but  shifted  in  the  greatest  variety  of 
direction.  They  are  a  sort  of  boiling  of  the  kettle,  not  a  down¬ 
hill  flow.  They  relieved  internal  strains  and  vacillated  back  and 
forth  with  circumstances ;  they  represented  no  drift  like  the  first 
occupation.  Much  of  their  story  may  ultimately  be  worked  out 
and  provide  a  national  history  of  pre-Columbian  America.  But 
the  effect  of  these  later  pressures  and  expansions  and  wanderings 
on  the  culture  development  of  the  New  World  as  a  whole  is 
likely  to  have  been  relatively  slight. 

183.  Emergence  op  Middle  American  Culture:  Maize 

For  perhaps  five  thousand  years  little  of  wide  significance 
happened  in  America.  There  may  have  been  progress,  but  it  was 
slow,  and  in  the  long  perspective  of  time  its  slender  evidences 
are  not  yet  determinable.  One  can  affirm  little  of  this  early 
period  except  that  differences  in  culture  must  have  begun  to 
develop  in  conformity  with  the  localized  opportunities  of 
environment. 

But  by  the  end  of  the  first  half  of  the  duration  of  American 
antiquity,  let  us  guess  somewhere  about  3000  B.C.,  a  perceptible 
differentiation  appears  to  have  taken  place  between  the  culture 
of  the  Middle  American 1  highland  and  the  remainder  of  the 
Americas.  The  highland  had  forged  ahead.  Especially,  per¬ 
haps,  was  this  true  of  the  region  of  southern  Mexico  and  Guate¬ 
mala.  Why  it  was  here  that  civilization  first  gathered  a  notable 
momentum,  it  is  difficult  to  say;  we  are  dealing  with  obscure 
beginnings  at  a  remote  period.  An  unusual  concentration  of 
population  is  likely  to  have  been  an  important  factor.  This  in 
turn  may  have  rested  on  the  ease  of  existence  in  a  sub-tropical 
area.  Advanced  civilizations  in  general  find  their  greatest  op- 

1  Mexico,  Central  America,  and  the  coast  and  mountain  parts  of  Colombia, 
Ecuador,  Peru,  and  Bolivia. 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


353 


portunities  in  fairly  temperate  environment ;  ineipient  ones  in 
semi-tropical  climates  or  unforested  regions  in  the  tropics.  At 
least  there  are  the  parallels  of  Egypt,  Babylonia,  India.  Pos¬ 
sibly  the  environmental  feature  of  greatest  value  to  cultural 
progress  in  Middle  America  was  its  diversity.  Mountain  and 
coast,  temperate  highland  and  hot  lowland,  humid  and  arid 
tracts,  tropical  jungle  and  open  country,  were  only  a  few  hours 
apart.  In  each  locality  the  population  worked  out  its  necessary 
adaptations,  and  yet  it  was  near  enough  others  of  a  different 
adaptation  for  them  to  trade,  to  depend  on  one  another,  to 
learn.  Custom  therefore  came  in  contact  with  custom,  inven¬ 
tion  with  invention.  The  discrepancies,  the  very  competitions, 
would  lead  to  reconciliations,  readaptations,  new  combinations. 
Cultural  movement  and  stimulus  would  normally  be  greater 
than  in  a  culturally  uniform  area. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  Middle  America  took  the  lead.  It  is  in  the 
region  of  southern  Mexico  that  a  wild  maize  grows — teocentli, 
“divine  maize, ’?1  the  Aztecs  called  it.  From  this,  in  a  remote 
archaic  period,  the  cultivated  plant  was  derived.  At  least,  such 
seems  to  be  the  probability  in  a  somewhat  tangled  mass  of 
botanical  evidence.  Here  then  the  dominant  plant  of  American 
agriculture  was  evolved :  with  it,  very  likely,  the  cultivated 
beans  and  squashes  that  are  generally  associated  in  native 
farming  even  in  parts  remote  from  Mexico. 

Pottery  has  so  nearly  the  same  distribution  as  maize  agri¬ 
culture,  as  to  suggest  a  substantially  contemporaneous  origin, 
probably  at  the  same  center.  This  is  the  more  likely  because  the 
art  is  of  chief  value  to  a  sessile  people,  and  farming  operates 
more  strongly  than  any  other  mode  of  life  to  bring  about  a 
sedentary  condition. 

Agriculture  almost  certainly  increased  the  population.  The 
food  supply  was  greater  and  more  regular;  people  got  used  to 
living  near  each  other  where  before  they  had  unconsciously 
drifted  apart  through  distrust;  and  the  proximity  in  turn,  as 
well  as  the  new  stability,  would  lessen  many  of  the  local  famines, 
hostilities,  and  other  hardships  to  which  the  smaller  and  less 

i  Maize  is  the  name  of  the  plant  in  England,  continental  Europe,  and 
Latin  America.  In  the  United  States  “corn,”  short  for  Indian  corn,  is  in 
current  usage;  but  this  word  means  grain  or  cereal  in  general. 


354 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


settled  communities  had  been  exposed.  As  the  death  rate  went 
down  and  numbers  mounted,  specialization  of  labor  would  be 
first  made  possible,  and  then  almost  forced.  A  self-contained 
community  of  a  hundred  cannot  permit  much  specialization  of 
accomplishment  and  none  of  occupation.  Every  man  must  be 
first  of  all  an  immediate  food  getter.  On  the  other  hand  a  com¬ 
munity  of  a  million  inevitably  segregates  somewhat  into  classes, 
trades,  guilds,  or  castes.  The  individual  with  decided  tastes  and 
gifts  in  a  particular  direction  finds  his  products  in  enough  de¬ 
mand  to  devote  himself  largely  or  wholly  to  their  manufacture. 
The  very  size  of  the  community  as  it  were  forces  him  to  spe¬ 
cialization,  and  thus  diversity,  with  its  train  of  effects  leading 
to  further  stimulation,  is  attained  independently  of  environ¬ 
ment. 


184.  Tobacco 

For  some  culture  elements,  the  evidence  of  early  origin  in 
Middle  America  is  less  direct.  The  use  of  tobacco,  for  instance, 
is  as  widely  spread  as  agriculture,  but  is  not  necessarily  as 
ancient.  Its  diffusion  in  the  eastern  hemisphere  has  been  so 
rapid  (§98)  as  to  make  necessary  the  admission  that  it  might 
have  spread  rapidly  in  the  New  World  also — faster,  at  any  rate, 
than  maize.  Moreover,  a  distinction  must  be  made  between  the 
smoking  or  chewing  or  snuffing  of  tobacco  and  its  cultivation. 
There  are  some  modern  tribes — mostly  near  the  margins  of  the 
tobacco  area — that  gather  the  plant  as  it  grows  wild.  It  is 
extremely  probable  that  wild  tobacco  was  used  for  some  time 
before  cultivation  was  attempted.  Nevertheless  tobacco  growing, 
whenever  it  may  have  originated,  evidently  had  its  beginning 
in  the  northern  part  of  Middle  America,  either  in  Mexico  or  the 
adjacent  Antillean  province.  It  is  here  that  Nicotiana  taibacum 
was  raised.  The  tribes  to  the  north  contented  themselves  with 
allied  species,  mostly  so  inferior  from  the  consumer’s  point  of 
view  that  they  have  not  been  taken  up  by  western  civilization. 
These  varieties  look  like  peripheral  substitutes  for  the  central 
and  original  Nicotiana  tabacum. 

The  Colombian  and  Andean  culture-areas  used  little  or  no 
tobacco,  but  chewed  the  stimulating  coca  leaf.  This  is  a  case 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


355 


of  one  of  two  competing  culture  traits  preventing  or  perhaps 
superseding  the  other,  not  of  tobacco  never  having  reached  the 
Andes.  Most  of  the  remainder  of  South  America  used  tobacco. 

185.  The  Sequence  of  Social  Institutions 

The  most  peripheral  and  backward  peoples  of  both  North  and 
South  America  even  to-day  remain  without  clans,  moieties, 
hereditary  totems,  or  exogamic  groupings  (§110).  Some  of 
these,  like  the  Eskimo  and  Fuegians,  live  at  the  extreme  ends 
of  the  continents,  under  conditions  of  hardships  which  might 
be  imagined  to  have  directed  all  their  energies  toward  the  mate¬ 
rial  sides  of  life  and  thus  left  over  little  interest  for  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  institutions.  But  this  argument  will  not  apply  to  the 
many  clanless  tribes  of  the  California,  Plains,  and  Tropical 
Forest  areas.  It  must  accordingly  be  concluded  that  those 
American  nations  that  show  no  formal  organization  of  society 
on  a  hereditary  basis — or  at  least  the  more  primitive  ones  who 
possess  no  equivalent  or  substitute — do  without  this  organiza¬ 
tion  because  they  never  acquired  it.  This  negative  condition 
may  then  be  inferred  as  the  original  one  of  the  whole  American 
race. 

Somewhat  more  advanced  culturally,  on  the  whole,  and  less 
definitely  marginal,  at  any  rate  in  North  America,  are  several 
series  of  tribes  that  do  possess  exogamic  groups — either  sibs  or 
moieties — in  which  descent  goes  in  the  male  line  and  is  generally 
associated  with  totemic  beliefs  or  practices.  These  comprise  the 
tribes  of  one  segment  of  the  Northwest  Coast  area;  those  of 
one  end  of  the  Southwest  with  some  extension  into  California ; 
and  those  of  most  of  the  Northern  Woodland,  with  some  exten¬ 
sion  into  the  Plains. 

Another  series  of  tribes  live  under  the  same  sort  of  organiza¬ 
tion  but  with  descent  reckoned  in  the  female  instead  of  the  male 
line.  These  comprise  the  peoples  of  one  end  of  the  Northwest 
Coast;  those  of  one  portion  of  the  Southwest;  and  those  of  the 
Southeast,  with  some  extensions  into  the  Northeast  and 
Plains. 

These  exogamic-totemic  series  of  tribes  average  higher  in  their 
general  culture  than  the  clanless  and  totemless  ones.  On  the 


356 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


whole,  too,  they  are  situated  nearer  the  focus  of  civilization  in 
Middle  America.  As  between  the  two  exogamic-totemic  series 
the  matrilinear  tribes  must  be  accredited  with  a  more  complex 
and  better  organized  culture  than  the  patrilinear  ones.  The 
finest  carving  in  North  America,  for  instance,  is  that  of  the 
Northwest — totem  poles,  masks,  and  the  like.  Within  the  North¬ 
west,  the  Tlingit,  Haida,  and  Tsimshian — matrilinear  tribes — 
excel  in  the  quality  of  this  work.  They  far  surpass  the  patri¬ 
linear  Kwakiutl  and  Salish.  So  in  the  Southwest :  the  matri¬ 
linear  Pueblos  build  stone  towns,  obey  a  priestly  hierarchy,  and 
possess  an  elaborate  series  of  cult  societies.  The  patrilinear 
Pimas  and  southern  Californians  live  in  villages  of  brush  or 
earth-covered  houses,  are  priestless,  and  know  at  most  a  single 
religious  society.  Again,  the  matrilineal  Southern  Woodlanders 
had  made  some  approach  to  a  system  of  town  life  and  political 
institutions,  the  patrilineal  Northern  Woodlanders  did  without 
any  serious  institutions  in  these  directions.  The  one  North¬ 
eastern  group  that  established  a  successful  political  organization, 
the  Iroquois  with  their  League  of  the  Five  Nations,  were  matri¬ 
linear  among  patrilinear  neighbors  and  possessed  positive  affilia¬ 
tions  with  the  Southeast. 

It  would  be  extravagant  to  maintain  that  throughout  the 
North  American  continent  every  matrilineal  tribe  was  culturally 
more  advanced  than  every  patrilineal  one.  But  it  is  clear  that 
within  each  area  or  type  of  culture  the  matrilineal  tribes  mani¬ 
fest  superiority  over  the  patrilineal  tribes  in  a  preponderance 
of  cultural  aspects.  The  matrilineal  clan  organization  thus  rep¬ 
resents  a  higher  and  presumably  later  stage  in  North  America 
than  patrilineal  clan  organization,  as  this  in  turn  ranks  and 
temporally  follows  the  clanless  condition. 

With  one  exception,  the  distribution  of  the  same  tribes  with 
reference  to  the  South  Mexican  center  agrees  with  their  ad¬ 
vancement.  The  Northeast  is  distinctly  peripheral,  the  South¬ 
east  a  half-way  tract  connected  with  Mexico  by  way  both  of  the 
Southwest  and  the  Antilles.  The  matrilineal  Pueblo  portion  of 
the  Southwest  occupies  part  of  the  plateau  backbone  near  the 
southern  end  of  which  the  Mexican  culture  developed.  It  was 
along  this  backbone  that  civilization  flowed  up  through  northern 
Mexico.  The  coasts  lagged  behind.  They  were  marginal  in 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


357 


Mexico,  more  marginal  still  in  the  Southwest,  where  the  patri¬ 
lineal  tribes  lived  on  or  near  the  Pacific. 

The  one  exception  is  in  the  Northwest  Coast,  where  the  more 
remote  northerly  tribes  are  matrilinear,  the  nearer  southerly 
ones  patrilinear.  This  reversed  distribution  raises  the  suspi¬ 
cion  that  the  Northwestern  social  oganization  may  have  had 
nothing  to  do  with  Mexico,  but  may  be  a  purely  local  product. 
This  suspicion  is  hardened  by  the  fact  that  the  Northwest  shows 
a  number  of  other  culture  traits — some  peculiar  to  itself,  others 
recurring  in  well  separated  areas — which  it  seems  impossible  to 
connect  with  Mexico.  Several  of  these  traits  will  be  discussed 
farther  on.  For  the  present  it  is  enough  to  note  their  existence 
as  an  indication  favorable  to  the  interpretation  of  the  North¬ 
west  social  organization  as  unrelated  to  Mexico.  Thus  the  ab¬ 
normal  matrilineal-patrilineal  distribution  in  the  Northwest  is 
no  bar  to  the  generic  finding  for  North  America  that  clanless, 
patrilinear,  and  matrilinear  organizations  of  society  rank  in 
this  order  both  as  regards  developmental  sequence  and  distance 
from  Middle  America. 

For  South  America  the  data  are  too  scattering  to  discuss 
profitably  without  rather  detailed  consideration. 

The  distributional  facts  outside  Middle  America  thus  point 
to  this  reconstruction  of  events.  The  original  Americans  were 
non-exogamous,  non-totemic,  without  sibs  or  unilateral  reckon¬ 
ing  of  descent.  The  first  institution  of  exogamic  groups  was  on 
the  basis  of  descent  in  the  male  line,  occurred  in  or  near  Middle 
America,  and  flowed  outwards,  though  not  to  the  very  peripheries 
and  remotest  tracts  of  the  continents.  Somewhat  later,  perhaps 
also  in  Middle  America,  possibly  at  the  same  center,  the  insti¬ 
tution  was  altered:  descent  became  matrilinear.  This  new  type 
of  organization  diffused,  but  in  its  briefer  history  traveled  less 
far  and  remained  confined  to  the  tribes  that  were  in  most  active 
cultural  connection  with  Middle  America. 

Now,  however,  a  seeming  difficulty  arises.  Middle  America, 
which  appears  to  have  evolved  patrilinear  and  then  matrilinear 
clans,  was  itself  clanless  at  the  time  of  European  discovery.1 

i  The  contrary  has  been  alleged.  To  dispose  of  the  allegations  seriatim 
would  involve  the  minute  examination  of  much  evidence.  Clan  organization 
is  here  used  in  reference  to  arbitrary,  named,  intratribal  exogamic  groups 


358 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


The  solution  is  that  Middle  America  indeed  evolved  these  insti¬ 
tutions  and  then  went  a  step  beyond  by  abandoning  or  trans¬ 
forming  them.  Obviously  this  explanation  will  be  validated  in 
the  degree  that  it  can  be  shown  that  probable  causes  or  products 
of  the  transformation  existed. 


186.  Rise  of  Political  Institutions:  Confederacy  and 

Empire 

In  general,  the  transformation  would  seem  to  have  been  along 
the  line  of  a  substitution  of  political  for  social  organization. 
Struggling  villages  confederated,  with  a  fixed  meeting  place  and 
established  council ;  the  authority  of  elected  or  hereditary  chiefs 
grew,  until  these  gave  the  larger  part  of  their  time  to  communal 
affairs;  towns  consolidated.  Public  works  could  thus  be  under¬ 
taken.  Not  only  irrigating  ditches  and  defenses,  but  pyramid 
temples  were  constructed.  In  Middle  America  this  condition 
must  have  been  attained  several  thousand  years  ago.  The 
Mayas  had  passed  beyond  it  early  in  the  Christian  era.  They 
were  then  ruled  by  a  governing  class  and  priesthood,  and  were 
erecting  dated  monuments  that  testify  to  a  settled  existence  of 
the  more  successful  of  their  communities. 

In  the  area  of  the  United  States,  which  may  be  reckoned  as 
perhaps  two  thousand  years  more  belated  than  southern  Mexico, 
political  organization  was  still  in  the  incipient  stage  at  the  time 
of  discovery.  The  Pueblos  of  the  Southwest  had  achieved  town 
life  and  considerable  priestly  control.  They  had  not  taken  the 
further  step  of  welding  groups  of  towns  into  larger  coherent 
units.  In  the  Southeast,  however,  while  the  towns  were  less 


to  which  the  individual  belongs  inalienably  by  virtue  of  his  birth,  his 
descent  being  necessarily  reckoned  on  one  side  only;  and  totemic  phenom¬ 
ena  being  usually  though  not  always  associated  with  the  group.  A  segre¬ 
gation  of  society  into  groups  based  primarily  on  blood  kinship,  co-resi¬ 
dence,  town  quarters,  occupation,  social  rank,  or  subordination  to  a  chief¬ 
tain  is  not  a  clan  organization.  Nor  is  the  unilateral  reckoning  of  descent 
a  sufficient  criterion.  Our  modern  family  names  descend  patrilineally 
without  any  historical  connection  between  them  and  a  clan  organization. 
In  general,  statements  as  to  the  existence  of  clan  systems  in  Middle 
America,  at  least  among  the  advanced  nations  of  Mexico  and  Peru,  rest 
either  on  a  loose  use  of  terms;  on  the  assumption  that  they  must  have 
existed  at  the  time  of  discovery;  or  on  a  forward  projection  into  the  his¬ 
toric  period  of  the  belief  that  they  had  once  existed.  This  belief  is  ac¬ 
cepted  here  without  such  projection. 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


359 


compact  physically,  and  probably  less  populous,  political  integra¬ 
tion  on  a  democratic  basis  had  made  some  headway.  The  insti¬ 
tution  evolved  was  essentially  a  confederacy  of  the  members  of 
a  language  group,  with  civil  and  military  chiefs,  council  houses, 
and  representation  by  “  tribes 77  or  towns  and  clans.  From  the 
Southeast  the  idea  of  the  confederacy  was  carried  into  the 
Northeast  by  the  Iroquois,  whose  famous  league,  founded  per¬ 
haps  before  Columbus  reached  America,  attained  its  culmina¬ 
tion  after  the  French  and  English  settlement  and  the  introduc¬ 
tion  of  firearms.  The  Iroquois  league  was  an  astounding 
accomplishment  for  a  culturally  backward  people.  Its  success 
was  due  to  the  high  degree  of  political  integration  achieved. 
Yet  it  did  not  destroy  the  older  clan  system,  in  fact  made  skilful 
use  of  it  for  its  own  purposes  of  political,  almost  imperialistic, 
organization.1 

Some  stage  of  this  sort  the  Mexican  peoples  may  have  passed 
through.  The  Maya  form  of  political  organization  was  evidently 
similar  to  that  of  the  Pueblos,  the  Aztec  development  more  like 
that  of  the  Muskogeans  and  Iroquois.  A  thousand  years  before 
Columbus  the  Maya  cities  were  contending  for  hegemony  like 
the  Greek  city-states  a  millenium  earlier.  Then  the  Naliua 
peoples  forged  to  the  front;  and  about  two  centuries  before 
the  invasion  of  Cortez,  Tenochtitlan,  to-clay  the  city  of  Mexico, 
began  a  series  of  conquests  that  ended  in  some  sort  of  empire. 
It  was  a  straggling  domain  of  subjected  and  reconquered  towns 
and  tribes,  interspersed  with  others  that  maintained  their  inde¬ 
pendence,  extending  from  middle  Mexico  to  Central  America, 
containing  probably  several  million  inhabitants  paying  regular 
tribute,  held  together  by  well-directed  military  force,  and  gov¬ 
erned  by  a  hereditary  line  of  half-elected  or  confirmed  rulers  of 
great  state  and  considerable  power.  The  exogamic  clan  organi¬ 
zation  as  such  had  disappeared.  Groups  called  calpulli  were 


i  Why  the  Southwest  with  its  solid  towns  of  a  thousand  and  more 
inhabitants,  its  generally  greater  advancement,  and  proximity  to  Mexico, 
should  never  have  progressed  to  larger  political  units,  is  not  wholly  clear. 
The  reason  may  be  that  the  Pueblo  was  a  heavily  ritualized  culture,  whose 
emphasis  was  on  the  priest,  not  the  governor  or  councilor.  Such  govern¬ 
ment  as  the  Pueblos  had  was  distinctly  theocratic.  They  were  also  dis¬ 
inclined  to  fight.  Southeastern  religion  was  quite  simple  in  comparison,  an 
important  priesthood  lacking,  and  the  warlike  spirit  rather  strong. 


360 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


important  in  Aztec  society,  but  they  were  local,  or  based  on  true 
kinship,  and  non-totemic.  They  may  have  been  the  made-over 
survivals  of  clans ;  they  were  not  clans  like  those  of  the  South¬ 
west,  Southeast,  or  Northwest. 

Five  successive  stages,  then,  were  probably  gone  through  in 
the  evolution  of  south  Mexican  society.  First  there  was  the  pre¬ 
clan  condition,  without  notable  organization  either  social  or 
political ;  next,  a  patrilinear  clan  system ;  third,  a  matrilinear 
clan  system,  with  more  important  functions  attaching  to  the 
clans,  especially  on  the  side  of  ceremonial ;  fourth,  the  begin¬ 
nings  of  the  state,  as  embodied  in  the  confederacy,  the  clans 
continuing  but  being  made  use  of  chiefly  as  instruments  of  po¬ 
litical  machinery;  fifth,  the  empire,  loose  and  simple  indeed, 
judged  by  Old  World  standards,  but  nevertheless  an  organized 
political  achievement,  in  which  the  clans  had  disappeared  or 
had  been  transformed  into  units  of  a  different  nature. 

187.  Developments  in  Weaving 

In  the  textile  arts,  since  the  successive  stages  rank  one  another 
rather  obviously,  and  the  distributions  coincide  well  with  them, 
the  course  of  development  is  indicated  plainly. 

The  first  phase  was  that  of  hand-woven  basketry,  which  has 
already  been  accredited  to  the  period  of  immigration,  and  is 
beyond  doubt  ancient.  All  Americans  made  baskets  at  one  time 
or  another.  The  few  tribes  that  were  not  making  them  at  the 
time  of  discovery  had  evidently  shelved  the  art  because  their 
environment  provided  them  with  birch  bark,  or  their  food  habits 
with  buffalo  rawhide,  with  exceptional  ease,  and  because  their 
wants  of  receptacles  and  cooking  utensils  were  of  the  simplest. 
That  basket  making  goes  back  to  a  rudimentary  as  well  as  early 
stage  of  civilization  is  further  suggested  by  the  fact  that  per¬ 
haps  the  finest  ware  is  made  in  the  distinctly  backward  areas, 
such  as  the  Plateau  and  California. 

A  second  and  a  third  phase,  which  are  sometimes  difficult  to 
distinguish,  are  those  of  loose  suspended  warps  and  of  a  simple 
frame  or  incomplete  loom.  Pliable  cords  of  some  sort,  or  coarse 
bast  threads,  are  employed.  The  objects  manufactured  are 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


361 


chiefly  wallets  or  bags,  blankets  of  strips  of  fur  or  feathers, 
hammocks,  and  the  like.  These  two  processes  are  widely  spread, 
but  not  quite  as  far  as  basketry;  the  northern  and  southern 
extremes  of  the  double  continent  do  not  know  them.  Occa¬ 
sionally,  very  fine  work  is  done  by  one  or  the  other  of  these 
two  methods.  The  most  striking  example  is  the  so-called  Chilkat 
blanket  of  the  Northwest  Coast,  a  cloth-like  cape,  woven,  with¬ 
out  a  complete  loom,  of  mountain  goat  wool  on  cedar  bark  warps 
to  a  complicated  pattern — a  high  development  of  a  low  type 
process. 

The  fourth  stage  is  that  of  the  true  or  complete  loom.  In 
America  the  loom  is  intimately  associated  with  the  cultivation 
of  cotton.  The  two  have  the  same  distribution,  except  for  some 
use  of  the  plant  for  the  twining  of  hammocks  on  a  half-loom  in 
portions  of  the  Tropical  Forest  area.  Disregarding  this  case  as 
a  probable  part  adaptation  of  a  higher  culture  trait  to  a  lower 
culture,  we  may  define  the  distribution  of  both  loom  and  cotton 
as  restricted  to  the  Middle  American  areas,  the  adjacent  South¬ 
west,  and  perhaps  the  adjacent  Antilles.  This  is  certainly 
central. 

The  fifth  stage  is  the  loom  with  a  handle  or  mechanical  shed¬ 
ding  device,  obviating  tedious  hand  picking  of  the  weft  in  and 
out  of  the  warps.  The  heddle  is  proved  only  for  Peru.  It  was 
probably  used  in  Mexico.  It  may  therefore  be  tentatively 
assumed  to  have  been  known  also  in  the  intervening  Chibcha 
area  It  is  used  to-day  in  the  Southwest,  but  may  have  been 
introduced  there  by  the  Spaniards.  This  stage  accordingly  is 
limited  even  more  strictly  to  the  vicinity  of  Middle  America. 

The  sixth  stage,  that  of  the  loom  whose  hedclles  are  operated 
by  treadles,  and  what  may  be  considered  a  seventh,  the  use  of 
multiple  heddles  to  work  patterns  mechanically,  were  never 
attained  by  any  American  people. 

The  best  and  finest  fabrics  were  made  in  Peru,  in  part  prob¬ 
ably  as  consequence  of  the  addition  of  wool  to  the  previous 
repertory  of  cotton.  This  addition  in  turn  probably  followed 
the  domestication  of  the  llama  by  the  Peruvians.  The  Mexicans 
had  no  corresponding  animal  to  tame,  and  their  textiles  lagged 
behind  in  quality. 


362 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


188.  Progress  in  Spinning  :  Cotton 

Spinning  and  weaving  are  interdependent.  Baskets  are  made 
of  woody  rods,  cane  splints,  root  fibers,  or  straws,  all  untwisted, 
but  it  is  probable  that  the  ability  to  twist  cordage  is  about 
equally  old  as  basketry.  At  any  rate  there  is  no  American 
people  ignorant  of  cord  making.  The  materials  are  occasionally 
sinews,  more  frequently  bast — that  is,  bark  fibers.  These  are 
rolled  together,  almost  invariably  two  at  a  time,  between  the 
palm  and  the  naked  thigh.  Cordage  is  used  for  the  second 
and  third  stages  of  weaving.  The  cotton  employed  in  loom 
weaving  does  not  spin  well  by  this  rolling  method.  It  was 
therefore  spun  by  being  twisted  between  the  fingers,  the  com¬ 
pleted  thread  being  wound  on  a  spindle.  This  spindle  served 
primarily  as  a  spool  or  bobbin.  In  the  Old  World  the  distaff 
has  been  used  for  thousands  of  years.  This  is  a  spindle  with 
a  whorl  or  flywheel.  It  is  dropped  with  a  twirl,  giving  both 
twist  and  tension  to  the  loose  roving  of  linen  or  wool  and  thus 
converting  it  into  yarn  by  a  mechanical  means.  The  New  World 
never  fully  utilized  this  device.  The  Southwest  to-day  uses  the 
wheeled  spindle,  but  evidently  as  the  result  of  European  intro¬ 
duction.  Old  Mexican  pictures  and  modern  Maya  photographs 
show  the  spindle  stood  in  a  bowl,  not  dropped.  The  whorl 
which  it  possessed  was  therefore  little  more  than  a  button  to 
keep  the  thread  from  slipping  off  the  slender  spindle.  For  Peru 
this  is  established.  Thousands  of  spindles  have  been  found  there, 
normally  with  whorls  too  small  and  light  to  serve  as  an  effec¬ 
tive  flywheel.  It  may  then  be  concluded  that  all  American  spin¬ 
ning  was  essentially  by  hand ;  which  is  in  accord  with  the  absence 
from  all  America  of  any  form  of  the  wheel.  The  Indian  spin¬ 
ning  methods  were  only  two :  thigh  rolling  for  bast,  finger  twist¬ 
ing  for  cotton. 

The  origin  of  the  higher  forms  of  spinning  and  weaving  in 
Middle  America  is  confirmed  by  the  tropical  origin  of  cotton, 
on  which  these  developments  depend.  The  cotton  of  the  South¬ 
west,  for  instance,  was  introduced  from  Mexico  as  a  cultivated 
plant.  It  is  derived  by  some  botanists  from  a  Guatemalan  wild 
species.  This  may  well  have  been  the  first  variety  to  be  cul¬ 
tivated  in  the  hemisphere. 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


363 


189.  Textile  Clothing 

Clothing  in  general  is  too  much  an  adaptation  to  climate  to 
render  satisfactory  its  consideration  wholly  by  the  method  here 
followed.  But  clothing  of  textiles  shows  a  distribution  that  is 
culturally  significant.  The  distribution  is  that  of  loom-woven 
cotton ;  the  salient  characteristic  is  rectangular  shape :  the  blan¬ 
ket  shawl,  the  poncho,  the  square  shirt  and  skirt.  In  the  North¬ 
west  Coast  region  hand  and  half-loom  woven  capes  and  skirts  of 
bast  were  worn  more  or  less.  But  these  were  flaring — trape¬ 
zoidal,  not  rectangular — and  thus  evidently  represent  a  separate 
development. 

In  all  the  cloth  weaving  areas,  and  in  them  only,  sandals  were 
worn.  The  spatial  correlation  is  so  close  that  there  must  be  a 
connection.  It  may  be  suggested  that  the  sandal  originated,  or 
at  least  owed  its  spread,  to  textile  progress.  Again  the  North¬ 
west  Coast  corroborates  by  being  unique ;  it  is  essentially  a  bare¬ 
foot  area. 

To  summarize.  The  original  textile  arts  of  the  race  were 
probably  first  advanced  to  the  stages  intermediate  between  bas¬ 
ket  and  cloth  making  in  Middle  America.  Thence  they  spread 
north  and  south,  but  not  quite  to  the  limits  of  the  hemisphere, 
being  retained  in  special  usage  chiefly  in  the  Northwest.  With 
the  cultivation  of  cotton  in  Middle  America,  spinning  and  the 
loom  came  into  use,  and  were  ultimately  carried  to  the  South¬ 
west,  but  not  beyond.  Cloth  garments  and  sandals  promptly 
followed.  The  hedclle  was  evidently  devised  last,  and  did  not 
diffuse  beyond  Middle  America. 

190.  Cults  :  Shamanism 

In  the  matter  of  religious  cults,  seven  entries  have  been  in¬ 
cluded  in  Figure  35:  (lh)  shamanism,  and  (li)  crisis  cere¬ 
monies,  especially  for  girls  at  puberty  and  the  whipping  of 
adolescent  boys,  two  more  or  less  synchronous  traits;  (6a)  initi¬ 
ating  societies,  and  (6b)  masks — also  about  contemporaneous; 
(16)  priesthood;  and  (22)  human  sacrifice  and  (23)  temples. 

The  shaman  is  an  individual  without  official  authority  but  often 
of  great  personal  influence.  His  supposed  power  comes  to  him 


364 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


directly  from  the  spirits  as  a  gift  or  grant.  He  himself,  as  a 
personality,  has  been  able  to  enter  into  a  special  relationship, 
denied  to  normal  persons,  with  the  supernatural  world  or  some 
member  thereof.  The  community  recognizes  his  power  after  it 
is  his :  the  community  does  not  elect  him  to  his  special  position, 
nor  accept  him  in  it  by  inheritance.  His  communion  with  spirits 
enables  the  shaman  to  foretell  the  future,  change  the  weather, 
blast  the  crops  or  multiply  game,  avert  catastrophes  or  precipi¬ 
tate  them  on  foes ;  above  all,  to  inflict  and  cure  disease.  He  is 
therefore  the  medicine-man ;  a  word  which  in  American  ethnology 
is  synonymous  with  shaman.  The  terms  doctor,  wizard,  juggler, 
which  have  established  themselves  in  usage  in  certain  regions,  are 
also  more  or  less  appropriate :  they  all  denote  shamans.  When 
he  wishes  to  kill  his  private  or  public  enemy,  the  shaman  by  his 
preternatural  faculties  injects  some  foreign  object  or  destructive 
substance  into  his  victim,  or  abstracts  his  soul.  To  cure  his 
friends  or  clients,  he  extracts  the  disease  object,  sometimes  by 
singing,  dancing,  blowing,  stroking,  or  kneading,  most  often  by 
sucking;  or  he  finds,  recaptures,  and  restores  the  soul.  Of  the 
two  concepts,  that  of  the  concrete  disease  object  is  more  widely 
spread ;  that  of  the  soul  theft  is  apparently  characteristic  of  the 
more  advanced  tribes;  but  the  exact  distribution  remains  to  be 
worked  out. 

The  territorial  extent  of  shamanistic  ideas  and  practices  is 
from  the  Arctic  to  Cape  Horn.  The  method  of  acquiring  power 
from  spirits,  the  nature  of  the  disease  object  and  its  process  of 
extraction,  the  conviction  that  sickness  must  be  caused  by  malevo¬ 
lent  shamanistic  power,  there  being  no  such  thing  as  natural 
death ;  these  and  other  specific  features  of  the  institution  are 
sometimes  surprisingly  similar  in  North  and  South  America.  In 
fact,  they  recur  in  peripheral  parts  of  the  eastern  hemisphere — 
Siberia,  Australia,  Africa — with  such  close  resemblance  as 
strongly  to  suggest  their  being  the  remnants  of  a  once  world¬ 
wide  rudimentary  form  of  religion  or  religious  magic. 

,  191.  Crisis  Rites  and  Initiations 

Crisis  rites  are  of  equally  broad  diffusion  and  apparent  an¬ 
tiquity.  They  concern  the  critical  points  of  human  life:  birth, 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA  365 

death,  sometimes  marriage  and  childbirth ;  but  most  frequently, 
or  at  least  most  sacredly,  they  are  wont  to  concern  themselves 
with  maturity.  They  are  thus  often  puberty  ceremonials,  made 
for  the  welfare  both  of  the  individual  and  of  the  community, 
and  fitting  him  or  her  for  reproductive  functions  as  well  as  for 
a  career  as  a  useful  and  successful  community  member.  The 
girls  ’  adolescence  rites  have  been  described  (§  154)  in  some  de¬ 
tail  for  California.  With  but  minor  variations,  the  account  there 
given  applies  to  the  customs  of  many  American  and  in  fact  Old 
World  peoples.  The  boys’  rites  come  at  the  corresponding  period 
of  life,  but  their  reference  to  sex  and  marriage  is  generally  less 
definite.  Fortitude,  manliness,  understanding  are  the  qualities 
they  are  chiefly  intended  to  test  and  fix.  Privations  like  fasting, 
ordeals  of  pain,  admonitions  by  the  elders,  are  therefore  char¬ 
acteristic  elements  of  these  rites.  It  is  thus  not  as  surprising  as 
it  might  seem  at  first  acquaintance  that  identical  practices,  such 
as  having  the  boys  stung  by  vicious  ants,  are  occasionally  found 
in  regions  as  remote  as  California  and  Brazil :  even  the  particular 
method  may  be  a  local  survival  of  a  wide  ancient  diffusion.  Per¬ 
haps  most  common  of  all  specific  ingredients  of  the  rite  in  Amer¬ 
ica  is  a  whipping  of  the  boys.  Possibly  this  commended  itself  as 
combining  a  test  of  fortitude  and  an  emotional  memento  of  the 
counsel  imparted.  At  any  rate  it  evidently  became  an  established 
part  of  the  puberty  rites  thousands  of  years  ago,  and  thus  ac¬ 
quired  the  added  social  momentum  of  an  immemorial  custom  in 
many  parts  of  both  North  and  South  America. 

192.  Secret  Societies  and  Masks 

Out  of  the  puberty  crisis  rite  for  boys  there  grew  gradually 
a  society  of  initiates  who  recruited  their  ranks  by  new  initia¬ 
tions.  As  emphasis  shifted  from  the  individual  to  the  community 
as  represented  by  those  already  initiated,  the  ceremony  came 
to  be  performed  less  for  the  benefit  of  the  individual  than  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  group,  the  society  as  such,  with  its  rites, 
secrets,  and  privileges.  Very  often,  no  one  was  excluded  but 
immature  boys  and  females;  yet,  if  the  act  of  admittance  was 
to  have  any  psychic  significance,  the  exclusion  of  these  elements 
of  the  community  had  to  be  made  much  of.  Thus  secrecy  toward 


366 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


women  and  children  was  emphasized,  although  often  the  secrets 
simmered  down  largely  to  the  fact  that  there  were  secrets. 

The  girls’  adolescence  ceremony  does  not  seem  to  have  taken 
this  course  of  growth,  because  of  its  more  personal  and  bodily 
character,  puberty  in  women  being  so  much^more  definite  a 
physiological  event.  There  are  women’s  societies  among  some 
American  tribes.  But  they  seem  to  be  generally  a  weaker  imita¬ 
tion  of  the  men’s  societies  after  these  were  fully  developed,  not 
a  direct  outgrowth  of  the  original  girls  ’  rite. 

Shamanism  entered  as  another  strain  into  the  formation  of  the 
secret  society.  Medicine-men  often  would  come  to  act  for  the 
public  good,  the  occasion  would  be  repeated  regularly,  and  a 
communal  ceremony  with  an  esoteric  nucleus  resulted.  Also, 
the  shamans  at  times  helped  the  novice  shamans  train  and  con¬ 
solidate  their  spiritual  powers.  The  extension  of  this  habit  per¬ 
haps  sometimes  led,  or  contributed,  to  the  establishment  of  a 
secret  society  (§158). 

Masks  are  closely  associated  with  secret  societies.  They  dis¬ 
guise  the  members  to  the  women  and  boys,  who  are  told,  and 
often  believe,  that  the  masked  personages  are  not  human  beings 
at  all.  Of  course  this  adds  to  the  mystery  and  impressiveness 
of  the  initiations,  especially  when  the  masks  are  fantastic  or 
terrifying.  Masks  and  societies  thus  are  two  related  aspects  of 
one  thing.  But  they  are  by  no  means  inseparable.  There  are 
tribes,  like  some  of  the  Eskimo,  who  use  masks  but  can  scarcely 
be  said  to  possess  societies,  while  in  the  Plains  and  elsewhere 
there  are  definite  societies  that  initiate  without  masks,  Physical 
and  economic  conditions  in  the  Arctic  operating  against  large- 
scale  community  life  or  social  elaboration,  the  masks  of  the 
Eskimo  may  represent  merely  that  part  of  a  mask-society 
“complex”  which  these  people  could  conveniently  take  over 
when  the  complex  reached  them. 

In  the  Southwest,  among  the  Pueblos,  there  are  two  types  of 
societies.  There  is  a  communal  society,  embracing  all  adult 
males,  who  are  initiated  at  puberty  by  whipping  and  who  later 
wear  masks  to  impersonate  spirits  and  dance  thus  for  the  public 
good.  There  are  several  smaller  societies,  also  with  secret  rites, 
which  cure  sickness,  recruit  their  membership  from  the  cured, 
and  use  masks  little  or  not  at  all.  It  is  clear  here  how  the  two 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


367 


component  strains,  namely  crisis  rites  and  shamanistic  practices, 
have  flowed  into  the  common  mold  of  the  society  idea  and  become 
patterned  by  it  without  quite  amalgamating. 

193.  Priesthood 

This,  then,  was  the  second  general  stage  of  American  religion. 
The  third  is  marked  by  the  development  of  the  priesthood.  The 
priest  is  an  official  recognized  by  the  community.  He  has  duties 
and  powers.  He  may  inherit;  be  elected,  or  succeed  by  virtue  of 
lineage  subject  to  confirmation.  But  he  steps  into  a  specific 
office  which  existed  before  him  and  continues  after  his  death. 
His  power  is  the  result  of  his  induction  into  the  office  and  the 
knowledge  and  authority  that  go  with  it.  He  thus  contrasts 
sharply  with  the  shaman — logically  at  least.  The  shaman  makes 
his  position.  Any  person  possessed  of  the  necessary  mediumistic 
faculty,  or  able  to  convince  a  part  of  the  community  of  his  ability 
to  operate  super  naturally,  is  thereby  a  shaman.  His  influence 
is  essentially  personal.  In  actuality,  the  demarcation  cannot  al¬ 
ways  be  made  so  sharply.  There  are  peoples  whose  religious 
leaders  are  borderline  shaman-priests.  Yet  there  are  other 
tribes  that  align  clearly.  The  Eskimo  have  pure  shamans  and 
nothing  like  priests.  The  Pueblos  have  true  priests  but  no  real 
shamans.  Even  the  heads  of  their  curing  societies,  the  men 
who  do  the  doctoring  for  the  community,  are  officials,  and  do 
not  go  into  trances  or  converse  with  spirits. 

Obviously  a  priesthood  is  possible  only  in  a  well  constructed 
society.  Specialization  of  function  is  presupposed.  People  so 
unorganized  as  to  remain  in  a  pre-clan  condition  could  hardly 
be  expected  to  have  developed  permanent  officials  for  religion. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  they  have  not.  There  are  not  even  clear 
instances  of  a  full  fledged  priesthood  among  patrilinear  sib 
tribes.  The  first  indubitable  priests  are  found  among  the  matri- 
linear  Southwesterners  and  a  few  of  their  neighbors.  Thence 
they  extend  throughout  the  region  of  more  or  less  accomplished 
political  development  in  Middle  America.  Beyond  that,  they 
disappear. 

Here  once  more,  then,  we  encounter  a  trait  substantially  con¬ 
fined  to  the  area  of  intensive  culture  and  evidently  superimposed 


368 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


upon  the  preceding  stages.  This  makes  it  likely  that  the  second 
stage,  that  of  societies  and  masks,  originated  in  the  same  center, 
but  so  long  ago  as  to  have  been  mostly  obliterated  by  later  de¬ 
velopments,  while  continuing  to  flourish  half  way  to  the 
peripheries. 

Even  the  priesthood  is  old  in  Middle  America.  This  seems 
reasonably  demonstrable.  We  do  not  know  its  actual  beginnings 
there.  But  its  surviving  conditions  at  the  edge  of  its  area  of 
occurrence  may  be  taken  as  roughly  indicative  of  its  origin. 
Among  the  Pueblos,  each  priest,  with  his  assistants,  is  the  curator 
of  a  sacred  object  or  fetish,  carefully  bundled  and  preserved. 
The  fetish  serves  the  public  good,  but  he  is  its  keeper.  In  fact 
he  might  well  be  said  to  be  priest  in  virtue  of  his  custodianship 
thereof.  Associated  is  the  concept  of  an  altar,  a  painting  which 
he  makes  of  colored  earth  or  meal.  In  the  Plains  area,  some 
tribes  may  be  somewhat  hesitatingly  described  as  having  a  priest 
or  group  of  old  men  as  priests.  Wherever  such  is  the  case,  these 
half-priests  are  the  keepers  of  fetish-bundles ;  usually  they  make 
something  like  an  altar  of  a  space  of  painted  earth.  Areas  as 
advanced  as  the  Northwest  Coast,  where  distinctive  priests  are 
wanting,  lack  also  the  bundles  and  altars.  It  looks,  therefore, 
as  if  the  American  priesthood  had  originated  in  association  with 
these  two  ceremonial  traits  of  the  fetish  bundle  and  painted 
altar — both  of  which  are  conspicuously  unknown  in  the  eastern 
hemisphere. 


194.  Temples  and  Sacrifice 

In  Middle  America  the  fetish  bundle  and  picture  altar  do  not 
appear,  apparently  through  supersedence  by  elements  character¬ 
istic  of  the  next  or  fourth,  cult  stage,  characterized  by  the  temple 
and  the  stone  altar  used  in  sacrifice.  Temples,  however,  were 
already  in  luxuriant  bloom  among  the  Maya  in  their  Great 
Period  of  400  to  600  A.  D.  The  beginnings  of  their  remarkable 
architecture  and  sculpture  must  of  course  lie  much  farther  back ; 
certainly  toward  the  opening  of  the  Christian  era,  very  likely 
earlier.  Before  this  came  the  presumptive  initial  stage  of  priest¬ 
hood,  with  bundles  and  altar  paintings  or  some  local  equivalent. 
If  a  thousand  years  be  allowed  for  this  phase,  the  commencement 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


of  the  priesthood  would  fall  in  southern  Mexico  or  Guatemala 
at  least  three  thousand  years  ago;  possibly  much  longer.  Peru, 
perhaps,  did  not  lag  far  behind. 

Temples  mark  the  last  phase  of  native  American  religion,  but 
the  most  purely  religious  characteristic  of  the  period,  independent 
of  mechanical  or  aesthetic  developments,  is  human  sacrifice.  This 
had  long  been  practised  by  the  Mayas  and  in  Peru,  but  reached 
its  culmination  in  the  New  World  and  probably  on  the  planet, 
at  least  as  regards  frequency  and  routine-like  character,  among 
the  Aztecs.  These  were  a  late  people,  by  their  own  traditions, 
to  rise  to  culture  and  power,  attaining  to  little  consequence  be¬ 
fore  the  fourteenth  century.  It  looks  therefore  as  if  human 
sacrifice  had  been  a  comparatively  recent  practice,  perhaps  only 
one  or  two  thousand  years  old  when  America  was  discovered, 
and  still  moving  toward  its  peak. 

Outside  Middle  America,  human  sacrifice  was  virtually  non¬ 
existent.  There  was  considerable  cannibalism  in  the  Tropical 
Forest  and  Antilles,  but  no  taking  of  life  as  a  purely  ceremonial 
act.  For  the  Pueblos  of  the  Southwest,  there  are  some  slight 
and  doubtful  suggestions,  but  it  appears  that  such  deaths  as 
were  inflicted  were  rather  punishments  than  offerings.  The  one 
North  American  people  admittedly  sacrificing  human  life  were 
the  Pawnee,  a  Plains  tribe,  who  once  a  year  shot  to  death  a  girl 
captive  amid  a  ritual  reminiscent  of  that  of  Mexico.  This  has 
always  been  interpreted  as  suggestive  of  a  historical  connection 
with  Mexico.  In  fact,  the  Pawnee  appear  to  have  moved  north¬ 
ward  rather  recently,  and  most  of  their  Caddoan  relatives  had 
remained  not  far  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  when  discovered. 

The  precise  origin  of  sacrifice  is  obscure,  although  it  is  sig¬ 
nificant  that  it  was  restricted  to  the  area  of  concentrated  popu¬ 
lation  and  towns.  In  Mexico  at  least  there  were  no  domes¬ 
ticated  mammals  available.  The  ultimate  foundation  of  human 
sacrifice  is  no  doubt  the  widespread  and  very  ancient  custom 
of  offerings.  It  is,  however,  a  long  leap  from  the  offering  of  a 
pinch  of  tobacco,  a  strew  of  meal,  an  arrowpoint  or  some  feathers, 
or  even  a  few  bits  of  turquoise,  to  the  deliberate  taking  of  a  life. 
Possibly  the  idea  of  self-inflicted  torture  served  as  a  connection. 
The  Plains  tribes  sometimes  hacked  off  finger  joints  as  offerings, 
and  in  their  Sun  Dance  tore  skewers  out  of  their  skins.  In  the 


370 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


northern  part  of  the  Tropical  Forest  knotted  cords  were  drawn 
through  the  nose  and  out  of  the  mouth — a  sufficiently  painful 
process — in  magico-religious  preparation.  In  Mexico  it  was  com¬ 
mon  for  worshipers  to  pierce  their  own  ears  or  tongues,  the  idea 
of  a  blood  offering  combining  with  that  of  penance  and  morti¬ 
fication. 

It  may  seem  strange  that  so  shocking  a  custom  as  human  sac¬ 
rifice  represented  the  climax  of  American  religious  development. 
Yet  in  a  few  thousand  years  more  of  undisturbed  growth,  it 
would  probably  have  been  superseded.  This  is  precisely  what 
happened  in  the  Old  World,  which  may  be  reckoned  as  about 
four  to  five  thousand  years  ahead  of  the  New.  In  the  Old  World 
also  the  really  lowly  and  backward  peoples  did  not  sacrifice  men. 
The  practice  is  a  symptom  of  incipient  civilization. 

195.  Architecture,  Sculpture,  Towns 

To  construct  stone-walled  buildings  seems  a  simple  accom¬ 
plishment,  especially  in  an  environment  of  stratified  rocks  that 
break  into  natural  slabs.  Such  flat  pieces  pile  up  into  a  stable 
wall  of  room  height  without  mortar,  and  a  few  log  beams  suffice 
to  support  a  roof.  Yet  the  greater  area  of  the  two  continents 
seems  never  to  have  had  such  structures.  Stone  buildings  are 
confined  to  Middle  America  and  the  Southwest.  Outside  these 
regions  only  the  wholly  timberless  divisions  of  the  Eskimo  make 
huts  of  stone,  and  for  their  winter  dwellings  they  are  limited  to 
choice  of  this  material  or  blocks  of  snow.  The  Eskimo  hut  is 
tiny,  not  more  than  eight  or  ten  feet  across,  and  the  weather  is 
kept  out  not  by  any  skill  in  masonry  or  plastering,  but  by  the 
rude  device  of  stuffing  all  crevices  with  sod.  The  Eskimo  style 
of  “building”  in  stone  would  be  inapplicable  in  a  structure  of 
pretension.  Made  larger,  the  edifice  would  collapse. 

The  art  of  masonry,  like  agriculture,  pottery,  and  loom  weav¬ 
ing,  may  therefore  be  set  down  as  having  had  its  origin  in  Mexico 
or  Peru,  or  possibly  in  both.  It  shows,  however,  this  peculiarity 
of  distribution :  at  both  ends  of  the  area,  among  the  Pueblos  of 
the  Southwest  in  North  America  and  among  the  Calchaqui  of 
northwest  Argentina  in  South  America,  living  houses  were 
stone-walled.  In  the  intervening  regions,  most  dwellings  were  of 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


371 


thatch  or  mud,  public  buildings  of  stone.  The  Aztec,  Maya,  and 
Inca  areas  have  therefore  left  stone  temples,  pyramids,  palaces, 
forts,  and  the  like,  but  few  towns;  the  Pueblo  and  Calchaqui, 
only  towns.1  How  the  Middle  Americans  were  first  brought  to 
use  stone  is  not  known ;  but  a  temple  built  as  such  being  a  more 
specialized,  decorative,  organized  edifice  than  a  dwelling,  as 
well  as  involving  some  degree  of  communal  cooperation,  it  can 
safely  be  regarded  as  a  later  type  than  private  dwellings.  The 
occurrence  of  the  stone  living  houses  at  the  peripheries  confirms 
their  priority.  Evidently  masonry  was  first  employed  in  Middle 
America  for  simple  public  structures:  chiefs’  tombs,  water 
works,  platforms  for  worship.  In  its  diffusion  the  art  reached 
peoples  like  the  Pueblos,  who  lived  in  small  communities,  in¬ 
terred  their  leaders  without  great  rites,  and  offered  no  sacrifices 
in  sight  of  multitudes.  These  marginal  nations  therefore  took 
over  the  new  accomplishment  but  applied  it  only  to  their  homes. 
Meanwhile,  however,  the  central  “inventors”  of  masonry  had 
grown  more  ambitious  and  were  rearing  ever  finer  and  larger 
structures,  until  the  superb  architecture  of  the  Mayas  and  the 
consummate  stone  fitting  of  the  Incas  reached  their  climax. 

Stone  sculpture  grew  as  an  accompaniment.  It  remained 
rude  in  Peru,  and  chiefly  limited  to  idols,  in  keeping  with  the 
simple,  massive  style  of  architecture.  But  the  Mayas  covered 
their  structurally  bolder  and  more  diversified  religious  build¬ 
ings  with  sculpture  in  relief  and  frescoed  stucco,  and  between 
them  set  up  great  carvings  of  animal  and  mythical  divinities, 
as  well  as  luxuriantly  inscribed  obelisks.  Their  sculpture  is 
aesthetically  the  finest  in  America  and  compares  in  quality  with 
that  of  Egypt,  India,  and  China. 

Recent  excavations  in  the  Southwest  have  revealed  a  succes¬ 
sion  of  stages  as  regards  buildings.  The  first  houses  in  this 
region  may  have  been  thatched  or  earth-roofed.  The  earliest 
in  which  stone  was  used  were  small,  dug  out  a  few  feet,  the 
sides  of  the  excavation  lined  with  upright  rock  slabs,  and  a 
superstructure  of  poles  or  mud-filled  wattling  added.  Then 

1  The  kiva  or  estufa  of  the  Southwest,  a  ceremonial  chamber,  is  a  partial 
exception.  Yet  even  it  differs  from  the  living  room  of  the  same  region 
chiefly  in  use.  Structurally  it  may  be  somewhat  larger,  or  circular  instead 
of  rectangular,  but  does  not  depart  widely  from  the  dwellings.  Function¬ 
ally  it  is  a  development  of  the  primitive  “men’s  house,”  not  a  temple. 


I 


372 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


followed  a  period  of  detached  one-room  houses,  with  rectangular 
walls  of  masonry;  and  finally  the  stage  of  drawing  these  to¬ 
gether  in  clusters  and  raising  them  in  terraced  stories.  This 
whole  development  can  be  traced  within  the  area.  Yet  it  by 
no  means  follows  that  it  originated  wholly  within  the  area. 
The  knowledge  of  laying  stone  in  courses,  the  impulse  or  habit 
of  doing  so,  might,  theoretically,  just  as  well  have  come  from 
without;  and  evidently  did  actually  come  into  the  Southwest 
from  Mexico. 

This  is  a  type  of  situation  frequently  encountered  in  culture 
history  problems.  A  group  of  data  seem  to  point  to  a  spon¬ 
taneous  origin  on  the  spot  so  long  as  they  are  viewed  only  lo¬ 
cally,  whereas  a  broader  perspective  at  once  reveals  them  as 
merely  part  of  a  development  whose  ultimate  source  usually 
lies  far  away.  For  instance,  the  backward  Igorot  tribes  of  the 
interior  Philippines  rear  imposing  terraces  for  their  rice  plots ; 
their  more  advanced  coastal  neighbors  do  not.  It  has  there¬ 
fore  been  debated  whether  the  Igorot  invented  this  large-scaled 
terracing  or  learned  it  from  the  Chinese.  Yet  the  terracing  is 
only  an  incident  to  rice  culture,  which  is  widespread  in  the 
Orient,  ancient,  and  evidently  of  mainland  origin.  The  knowl¬ 
edge  of  terracing  was  therefore  no  doubt  long  ago  imported  into 
the  Philippines  along  with  rice  cultivation,  and  the  Igorot  only 
added  the  special  local  development  of  carrying  the  terraces  to 
a  more  impressive  height.  There  is  no  question  that  the  increase 
and  better  concatenation  of  knowledge  is  gradually  leading  to 
more  and  more  certain  instances  of  wide  diffusions  and  fewer 
and  fewer  cases  of  independent  origin. 

Town  life  possesses  a  material  aspect — that  of  the  type  and 
arrangement  of  dwellings — as  well  as  the  social  and  political 
aspects  already  touched  on.  The  largest  towns  in  America  were 
those  of  Mexico  and  Peru,  whose  capitals  may  have  attained 
populations  of  fifty  to  a  hundred  thousand.  The  Maya  towns 
were  smaller,  in  keeping  with  the  Maya  failure  to  develop  an 
empire.  The  largest  towns  of  the  Chibcha  of  Colombia  may 
have  held  ten  or  twenty  thousand  souls.  The  most  flourishing 
pueblos  of  the  Southwest  seem  never  to  have  exceeded  three 
thousand  inhabitants.  The  Calchaqui  towns  in  Andean  Argen¬ 
tina  were  no  larger,  probably  smaller.  Southeastern  and  North- 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


373 


west  Coast  towns  ran  to  hundreds  instead  of  thousands  of  popu¬ 
lation.  These  figures  tell  the  usual  story  of  thinning  away  from 
center  to  peripheries. 

But  local  differences  were  sometimes  significant.  The  South¬ 
eastern  town,  except  for  its  court  and  rude  public  buildings,  was 
straggling  and  semi-rural  compared  with  the  compact,  storied, 
and  alleyed  Southwestern  pueblo;  often  it  was  ]ess  populous. 
Yet  its  political  and  military  development  was  more  advanced, 
at  any  rate  as  a  unit  in  the  larger  group  of  the  confederacy. 

196.  Metallurgy 

The  use  of  metals  in  America  falls  into  three  stages.  The 
peripheral  and  backward  areas,  such  as  Patagonia  and  Cali¬ 
fornia,  and  those  parts  of  the  Tropical  Forest  in  which  nature 
had  denied  a  supply  and  remoteness  had  shut  off  trade,  did 
wholly  without  metals. 

In  the  areas  of  medium  advancement,  like  the  Northwest, 
Southwest,  and  the  ancient  Mound  Builder  region  of  the  Ohio 
Valley,  native  copper  was  beaten  out  into  sheets,  trimmed,  bent, 
gouged,  and  engraved.  It  was  not  smelted  from  ore  nor  cast. 
Its  treatment  was  thus  essentially  by  stone  age  processes.  Gold, 
silver,  and  other  metals  were  not  used;  iron  only  sporadically 
when  it  could  be  obtained  in  the  native  metallic  state  from  a 
fallen  meteorite.  The  supply  even  of  copper  was  rarely  large. 
It  flowed  in  trade,  much  like  precious  stones  among  ourselves, 
to  the  wealthier  groups  of  nations  able  to  part  with  their  own 
products  in  exchange  for  this  substance  prized  by  them  for 
jewelry  and  insignia  but  rarely  made  into  tools. 

The  third  stage  is  that  of  true  metallurgical  processes,  and  is 
confined  to  the  three  Middle  American  areas.  Here,  copper, 
gold,  silver,  and  so  far  as  they  were  available  tin  and  platinum, 
were  sought  after  and  worked.  Copper  at  any  rate  was  ex¬ 
tracted  from  its  ores  by  smelting;  all  the  known  metals  were 
fused  and  cast,  both  in  permanent  molds  and  by  the  method 
of  melting  wax  out  of  a  single-time  mold.  Wire  was  beaten 
or  drawn  out ;  gold  leaf  and  acid  plating  practised ;  and  welding, 
hardening  by  hammering,  and  self-soldering  were  known.  Al¬ 
loys  were  made:  copper-tin  bronze  in  Bolivia  and  the  south 


374 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


Peruvian  highland,  whence  its  use  later  spread  north,  perhaps 
being  carried  as  far  as  Mexico  (§108);  copper-arsenic  bronze 
and  copper-silver  alloy  on  the  Peruvian  coast;  copper-gold  in 
Colombia  and  Mexico ;  copper-lead  bronze  in  Mexico. 

Nowhere,  however,  was  metal  the  standard  material  for  tools, 
which  continued  to  be  mostly  of  stone  or  wood.  Metallic  tools 
and  utensils,  especially  knives  and  axes,  were  not  altogether 
rare  in  the  bronze  region  of  South  America.  The  superior 
hardness  of  bronze  as  compared  with  copper  no  doubt  proved 
a  stimulus  in  this  direction.  But  Maya  temple-cities  were  built 
with  stone  tools,  and  the  Aztecs  cut  and  fought  with  obsidian. 
In  general,  metal  remained  treasure  or  ornament.  There  were 
not  even  the  beginnings  of  an  iron  culture  anywhere  in  the 
hemisphere. 

In  the  larger  outlines,  the  history  of  American  metallurgy  is 
thus  simple  enough,  as  something  developed  late  and  never 
diffused  beyond  the  central  region  of  intensive  culture.  As  to 
the  sequence  of  use  of  the  several  metals  and  processes,  on  the 
other  hand,  rather  little  has  been  ascertained.  It  seems  that 
in  these  matters  South  America  might  have  been  somewhat  in 
advance  of  Mexico,  both  in  time  and  in  degree  of  attainments. 
The  age  of  the  metallurgical  arts  in  Middle  America  must  not 
be  underestimated.  In  spite  of  their  relative  recency,  they  can 
hardly  have  been  less  than  several  thousand  years  old. 

197.  Calendars  and  Astronomy 

The  earliest  stage  of  anything  like  time  reckoning  in  America 
was  what  might  be  called  the  descriptive  moon  series.  The  re¬ 
turn  of  the  seasons  marked  the  year.  Within  the  year,  rude 
track  was  kept  of  the  passage  of  time  by  following  a  series  of 
“  natural  ”  months  or  lunations  named  after  events,  such  as 
“ heavy  cold, ”  “flying  geese, ”  “deer  rutting,”  or  “falling 
leaves.”  No  one  cared  and  perhaps  no  one  knew  how  many 
days  there  were  in  a  moon,  let  alone  in  a  year.  No  one  knew  his 
age,  nor,  as  a  rule,  how  many  years  ago  any  event  had  taken 
place.  It  is  a  mark  of  pretty  high  civilization  when  people  know 
how  old  they  are. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  accuracy,  the  moon  series  calendar 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


375 


left  much  to  be  desired,  since  there  are  something  over  twelve 
and  considerably  under  thirteen  visible  lunations  in  a  solar  or 
seasonal  year.  Some  tribes  allowed  twelve  moons,  others  thir¬ 
teen,  in  some  different  individuals  disagreed.  Whenever  the 
geese  actually  flew,  debates  were  settled :  it  was  flying  geese 
month,  and  every  one  went  on  with  the  series  from  there.  If 
he  had  happened  to  get  a  moon  ahead  or  behind,  he  accepted 
the  event  as  a  correction. 

The  moon  series  calendar  was  used  by  the  majority  of  tribes 
in  the  United  States  and  Canada. 

Somewhat  more  advanced  is  the  solstitial  moon  series.  This 
takes  one  of  the  solstices,  usually  the  one  just  before  our  Christ¬ 
mas,  as  the  fixed  beginning  and  end  of  the  year.  The  days  are 
noticeably  shortest  then.  Some  tribes  went  farther  and  em¬ 
ployed  landmarks  to  observe  the  place  on  the  horizon  of  the 
sun’s  rising.  Until  the  solstice  this  place  shifts  daily  southward, 
after  it  northward.  Also,  the  noonday  shadows  fall  longest 
at  the  winter  solstice.  Here  then  was  a  point  in  the  year  which 
was  always  the  same,  whereas  the  geese  might  fly  or  the  leaves 
fall  early  one  year  and  late  the  next.  The  definiteness  thus 
obtained  was  followed  up  by  numbering  the  moons  instead  of 
describing  them.,  or  by  recognizing  both  solstices  as  a  frame 
within  which  there  fell  two  parallel  groups  of  six  moons,  or  of 
five  moons  and  a  slightly  longer  solstitial  period. 

This  method  also  did  not  solve  the  really  difficult  problem 
of  making  twelve  lunations  and  an  irregular  fraction  fit  auto¬ 
matically  and  permanently  into  the  solar  year;  and  provision 
for  counting  days  and  years  was  still  wholly  lacking.  Yet  the 
first  beginnings  of  exact  astronomical  observations  had  been 
made  and  were  utilized  to  give  the  year  and  its  subdivisions 
a  certain  fixity. 

The  occurrence  of  the  simple  solstitial  calendar  in  North 
America  is  significant.  It  occurs  in  the  Southwest  and  North¬ 
west  :  that  is,  in  the  area  most  directly  influenced  by  the  higher 
Mexican  center,  and  the  area  which  made  most  progress  inde¬ 
pendently  of  Mexico.1 


1  Some  of  the  Eskimo  followed  a  solstitial  reckoning  also,  but  probably 
as  a  result  of  the  unusual  astronomical  phenomena  of  their  high  latitudes 
rather  than  as  the  consequence  of  cultural  influence. 


376 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


These  two  stages  of  the  descriptive  and  the  solstitial  moon 
series  were  long  ago  passed  through  in  southern  Mexico  and  a 
need  felt  for  a  more  precise  time  reckoning.  No  calendar  can 
either  serve  accuracy  or  cover  long  periods  which  fails  to  con¬ 
cern  itself  with  the  exact  arithmetical  relation  of  its  smaller 
units  to  its  larger  ones :  the  number  of  days  in  the  month  and 
year,  for  instance.  This  concern*  would  not  be  difficult  if  the 
relations  were  simple;  but  nature  has  put  something  over  29% 
days  into  a  lunation,  something  under  365%  days  and  a  little 
over  12%  lunations  into  the  year.  The  first  step  ahead  was 
undoubtedly  a  day  count,  as  previously  the  numbering  of  the 
moons  had  marked  an  advance  over  their  descriptive  naming. 
The  day  count  must  have  revealed  the  discrepancy  between  the 
actual  numbers  and  those  assumed  for  the  larger  units,  such 
as  30  and  360.  A  great  advance  was  therefore  made  when  the 
natural  lunation  was  wholly  abandoned  and  artificial  units  sub¬ 
stituted.  The  Mayas,  or  possibly  some  previous  and  forgotten 
people,  invented  a  “  month  ”  of  twenty  days,  probably  because 
they  counted  by  twenties  instead  of  tens.  Eighteen  of  these 
months,  with  five  added  leap  days,  made  a  365-day  year.  Thir¬ 
teen  20-day  months  made  another  and  wholly  arbitrary  period 
of  260  days,  which  the  Aztecs,  who  borrowed  the  system,  called 
tonalamatl.1  The  tonalamatl  had  no  basis  in  nature  or  as¬ 
tronomy  and  was  a  pure  invention :  a  reckoning  device.  It  ran 
its  course  concurrently  with  the  year  as  two  wheels  of  260  and 
365  cogs  might  engage.  The  same  cogs  would  meet  again  at  the 
end  of  73  and  52  revolutions  respectively,  that  is,  365  and  260 
divided  by  5,  their  highest  common  factor.  At  the  end  of  each 
52  years,  therefore,  the  beginning  of  the  year  and  of  the  tona¬ 
lamatl  again  coincided,  giving  a  “ calendar  round”  of  that 
duration.  This  52-year  period  is  the  one  by  which  the  Aztecs 
dated. 

The  Mayas,  however,  did  not  content  themselves  with  the  52- 
year  period,  but  reckoned  time  by  katuns  of  20  and  cycles  of 
400  years.2  The  dates  on  Maya  inscriptions  are  mostly  from 

1  The  tonalamatl  was  not  divided  into  13  discrete  month  periods  of  20 
days  each,  but  was  a  permutation  system  of  20  names  with  13  numbers, 
yielding  a  recurrent  cycle  of  260  days  each  designated  by  its  particular 
combination  of  name  and  number.  See  §  106. 

2  The  years  in  this  reckoning  were  somewhat  short:  360  days. 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


377 


their  ninth  cycle,  with  some  from  the  end  of  the  eighth  and  be¬ 
ginning  of  the  tenth.  This  period  corresponds  approximately 
to  the  first  six  centuries  of  the  Christian  era.  The  beginning 
of  the  first  cycle  would  fall  more  than  3,000  years  before  Christ. 
There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  this  time  reckoning  began  then. 
It  is  more  likely  that  a  little  before  the  time  of  Christ  the  Mayas 
perfected  this  system  of  chronology  and  gave  it  dignity  by 
imagining  some  seven  or  eight  cycles  to  have  passed  between  the 
beginning  of  the  world,  or  some  other  mythological  event,  and 
the  actual  commencement  of  their  record.  From  the  close  of 
their  eighth  cycle,  however,  the  dates  are  apparently  contem¬ 
porary  with  the  events  to  which  they  refer. 

This  system  is  so  elaborate  that  it  could  scarcely  have  been 
devised  and  adopted  all  at  once.  There  must  have  been  a  time 
lasting  some  centuries,  perhaps  over  a  thousand  years,  previous 
to  the  Christian  era,  during  which  the  first  day  count  was  being 
elaborated  and  perfected  into  the  classical  calendar  of  the  early 
post-Christian  Maya  monuments. 

This  calendar  did  not  exhaust  the  astronomical  and  mathe¬ 
matical  accomplishments  of  the  Mayas.  They  ascertained  that 
eight  solar  years  correspond  almost  exactly  with  five  “ years” 
or  apparent  revolutions  (584  days)  of  the  planet  Venus,  and 
that  65  Venus  years  of  a  total  of  37,960  days  coincide  with  two 
calendar  rounds  of  52  solar  years.  They  knew  that  their  365- 
day  year  was  a  fraction  of  a  day  short  of  the  true  year,  deter¬ 
mined  the  error  rather  exactly,  and,  while  they  did  not  inter¬ 
polate  any  leap  days,  they  computed  the  necessary  correction  at 
25  days  in  104  years  or  two  calendar  rounds.  This  is  greater 
accuracy  than  has  been  attained  by  any  calendar  other  than 
our  modern  Gregorian  one.  As  regards  the  moon,  they  brought 
its  revolutions  into  accord  with  their  day  count  with  an  error 
of  only  one  day  in  300  years.  These  are  high  attainments,  and 
for  a  people  without  astronomical  instruments  involved  accurate 
and  protracted  observations  as  well  as  calculatory  ability. 

Much  less  is  known  of  South  American  calendars;  but,  like 
the  dwindling  away  from  Maya  to  Aztec  to  Pueblo  and  finally 
to  the  rudiments  of  the  descriptive  moon  series  of  the  backward 
tribes  in  the  northern  continent,  so  there  is  discernible  a  retarda¬ 
tion  of  progress  as  the  Maya  focus  is  left  behind  toward  the 


378 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


south.  The  most  developed  calendar  in  South  America  was  that 
of  the  Chibchan  peoples  of  Colombia.  Beyond  them,  the  Inca, 
in  their  greater  empire,  got  along  with  a  system  intermediate 
in  its  degree  of  development  between  the  Aztec  and  the  Pueblo 
ones.  In  the  Tropical  Forest  and  Patagonian  areas  there  do 
not  seem  to  have  been  more  than  moon  name  series  comparable  to 
those  of  peripheral  North  America. 

198.  Writing 

Related  to  calendar  and  mathematics  in  its  origin  was  writing, 
which  passed  out  of  the  stage  of  pictographs  and  simple  ideo¬ 
grams  only  in  the  Mexican  area.  The  Aztecs  used  the  rebus 
method  (§  130),  but  chiefly  for  proper  names,  as  in  tribute  lists 
and  the  like.  The  Mayas  had  gone  farther.  Their  glyphs  are 
highly  worn  down  or  conventionalized  pictures,  true  symbols ; 
often  indeed  combinations  of  symbols.  They  mostly  remain 
illegible  to  us,  and  while  they  appear  to  contain  phonetic  ele¬ 
ments,  these  do  not  seem  to  be  the  dominant  constituents.  The 
Maya  writing  thus  also  did  not  go  beyond  the  mixed  or  transi¬ 
tional  stage.  The  Chibcha  may  have  had  a  less  advanced  system 
of  similar  type,  though  the  fact  that  no  remains  of  it  have  Sur¬ 
vived  argues  against  its  having  been  of  any  considerable  develop¬ 
ment.  The  Peruvians  did  not  write  at  all.  They  scarcely  even 
used  simple  pictography.  Their  records  were  wholly  oral,  forti¬ 
fied  by  mnemonic  devices  known  as  quipus,  series  of  knotted 
strings.  These  were  useful  in  keeping  account  of  numbers,  but 
could  of  course  not  be  read  by  any  one  but  the  knotter  of  the 
strings:  a  given  knot  might  stand  equally  for  ten  llamas,  ten 
men,  ten  war  clubs,  or  ten  jars  of  maize.  The  remainder  of 
South  America  used  no  quipus,  and  while  occasional  pictographs 
have  been  fourfcd  on  rocks,  they  seem  to  have  been  less  developed, 
as  something  customary,  than  among  the  North  American  tribes. 
All  such  primitive  carvings  or  paintings  were  rather  expressions 
of  emotion  over  some  event,  concrete  or  spiritual,  intelligible  to 
the  maker  of  the  carving  and  perhaps  to  his  friends,  than  rec¬ 
ords  intended  to  be  understood  by  strangers  or  future  gen¬ 
erations. 

Connected  with  the  fact  that  the  highest  development  of 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


379 


American  writing  took  place  in  southern  Mexico,  is  another :  it 
was  only  there  that  books  were  produced.  These  were  mostly 
ritualistic  or  astrological,  and  were  painted  on  long  folded  strips 
of  maguey  fiber  paper  or  deerskin.  They  were  probably  never 
numerous,  and  intelligible  chiefly  to  certain  priests  or  officials. 

199.  The  Several  Provincial  Developments:  Mexico 

Since  the  calendrical  and  graphic  achievements  enumerated, 
together  with  temple  sculpture,  lie  in  the  fields  of  science,  knowl¬ 
edge,  and  art,  and  since  they  show  a  definite  localization  in 
southern  Mexico,  in  fact  point  to  an  origin  in  the  Maya  area, 
they  almost  compel  the  recognition  of  this  culture  center  as 
having  constituted  the  peak  of  civilization  in  the  New  World. 

This  localization  establishes  at  least  some  presumption  that  it 
was  there  rather  than  in  South  America  that  the  beginnings  of 
cultural  progress,  the  emergence  out  of  primitive  uniformity, 
occurred.  To  be  sure,  it  is  conceivable  that  agriculture  and 
other  inventions  grew  up  in  Andean  South  America,  were  trans¬ 
ported  to  Mexico,  for  some  reason  gained  a  more  rapid  develop¬ 
ment  there,  until,  under  the  stimulus  of  this  forward  movement, 
further  discoveries  were  made  which  the  more  steadily  and 
slowly  progressing  Peruvian  motherland  of  culture  failed  to 
equal.  Conjectures  of  this  sort  cannot  yet  be  confirmed  or  dis¬ 
proved.  Civilization  was  sufficiently  advanced  in  both  Mexico 
and  Peru  to  render  it  certain  that  these  first  beginnings  now 
referred  to,  lay  some  thousands  of  years  back.  In  the  main, 
Mexican  and  Peruvian  cultures  were  nearly  on  an  equality, 
and  in  their  fundamentals  they  were  sufficiently  alike,  and  suf¬ 
ficiently  different  from  all  Old  World  cultures,  to  necessitate 
the  belief  that  they  are,  broadly,  a  common  product. 

Still,  the  superiority  of  the  Mexicans  in  the  sciences  and  arts 
carries  a  certain  weight.  If  to  this  superiority  are  added  the 
indications  that  maize  and  cotton  were  first  cultivated  in  the 
south  Mexican  area,  in  other  words,  that  the  fundamentals  of 
American  agriculture  and  loom-weaving  seem  more  likely  to 
have  been  developed  there  than  elsewhere ;  and  if  further  the 
close  association  of  pottery  with  agriculture  throughout  the 
western  hemisphere  is  borne  in  mind,  it  seems  likely  that  the 


380 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


seat  of  the  first  forward  impetus  out  of  the  wholly  primitive 
status  of  American  culture  is  to  be  sought  in  the  vicinity  of 
southern  Mexico. 


200.  The  Andean  Area 

The  triumphs  of  Mexican  civilization  were  in  the  spiritual 
or  intellectual  field;  those  of  Peru  lay  rather  in  practical  and 
material  matters.  The  empire  of  the  Incas  was  larger  and  much 
more  rigorously  organized  and  controlled,  their  roads  longer 
and  more  ambitious  as  engineering  undertakings,  their  masonry 
more  massive ;  their  mining  operations  and  metal  working  more 
extensive.  The  domestication  of  the  llama  and  the  cultivation 
of  certain  food  plants  such  as  the  potato  gave  their  culture  an 
added  stability  on  the  economic  side. 

The  extent  of  the  Inca  empire,  and  of  the  smaller  states  that 
no  doubt  preceded  it,  was  of  influence  in  shaping  Andean  cul¬ 
ture.  Organized  and  directed  efforts  of  large  numbers  of  men 
were  made  available  to  a  greater  degree  than  ever  before  in  the 
New  World.  The  empire  also  operated  in  the  direction  of  more 
steady  industry,  but  its  close  organization  and  routine  prob¬ 
ably  helped  dwarf  the  higher  flights  of  the  mind.  In  the  quality 
of  their  fabrics,  jewelry,  stone  fitting,  and  road  building,  as 
well  as  in  exactness  of  governmental  administration,  the  Peru¬ 
vians  excelled.  It  is  remarkable  how  little,  with  all  their  prog¬ 
ress  in  these  directions,  they  seem  to  have  felt  the  need  of  ad¬ 
vance  in  knowledge  or  art  for  its  own  sake.  They  thought  with 
their  hands  rather  than  their  heads.  They  practised  skill  and 
inhibited  imagination. 

The  Incas,  like  the  Aztecs  in  Mexico,  represent  merely  the 
controlling  nation  during  the  last  stage  of  development.  Their 
specific  culture  was  the  local  one  of  the  highlands  about  Cuzco. 
Prehistoric  remains  from  the  coast  both  north  and  south,  and  in 
the  Andean  highland  southward  of  Cuzco  in  the  vicinity  of 
Lake  Titicaca  and  the  adjacent  parts  of  Bolivia,  demonstrate 
that  this  Inca  or  Cuzco  culture  was  only  the  latest  of  several 
forms  of  Andean  culture.  At  the  time  of  Inca  dominion,  the 
great  temple  of  Tiahuanaco  near  Lake  Titicaca  was  already  a 
ruin.  Pottery  of  a  type  characteristic  of  the  Tiahuanaco  dis- 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


381 


trict,  and  similar  in  style  to  its  stone  carvings,  has  been  found 
in  remote  parts  of  the  Andean  area,  thus  indicating  the  district 
as  an  early  center  of  diffusion.  Other  centers,  more  or  less 
contemporaneous,  some  of  them  perhaps  still  earlier,  can  be 
distinguished  along  the  coast.  In  short,  the  inner  history  of  the 
Andean  region  is  by  no  means  summed  up  in  that  picture  of  it 
which  the  Inca  domination  at  the  time  of  discovery  presented. 
New  scientifically  conducted  excavations  throughout  the  area 
will  no  doubt  unravel  further  the  succession  of  local  cultural 
developments. 

201.  Colombia 

The  Chibchas  of  Colombia,  the  intermediate  member  of  the 
three-linked  Middle  American  chain,  fell  somewhat,  but  not 
very  far,  below  the  Mexicans  and  Peruvians  in  their  cultural 
accomplishments.  Their  deficiency  lay  in  their  lack  of  specific 
developments.  They  do  not  show  a  single  cultural  element  of 
importance  peculiar  to  themselves.  They  chewed  coca,  slept 
in  hammocks,  sat  on  low  chairs  or  stools;  but  these  are  traits 
common  to  a  large  part  of  South  America.  Consequently  the 
absence  or  weak  development  of  these  traits  in  Mexico  is  no 
indication  of  any  superiority  of  the  Chibchas  as  such.  The  great 
bulk  of  Colombian  culture  was  a  substratum  which  underlay 
the  higher  local  developments  of  Mexico  and  Peru ;  and  this 
substratum — varied  agriculture,  temples,  priesthood,  political 
organization — the  Chibchas  possessed  without  notable  gaps. 
Whatever  elements  flowed  from  Mexico  to  Peru  or  from  Peru 
to  Mexico  at  either  an  early  or  a  late  period,  therefore  probably 
passed  through  them.  In  isolated  matters  they  may  have  added 
their  contribution.  On  the  whole,  though,  their  role  must  have 
been  that  of  sharers,  recipients,  and  transmitters  in  the  general 
Middle  American  civilization. 

202.  The  Tropical  Forest 

The  line  of  demarcation  between  the  narrow  Pacific  slope  of 
South  America  and  the  broad  Atlantic  drainage  is  sharp,  espe¬ 
cially  in  the  region  of  Peru.  The  Cordilleran  stretch  is  arid 
along  the  coast,  sub-arid  in  the  mountains,  unforested  in  all 


382 


ANTHKOPOLOGY 


its  most  characteristic  portions.  East  of  the  crest  of  the  Andes, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  rainfall  is  heavy,  often  excessive,  the 
jungle  thick,  communication  difficult  and  largely  dependent  on 
the  waterways.  Even  the  Caucasian  has  made  but  the  slightest 
impression  on  the  virgin  Amazonian  forest  at  its  densest.  The 
Inca  stretched  his  empire  a  thousand  miles  north  and  a  thousand 
to  the  south  with  comparative  ease,  establishing  uniformity  and 
maintaining  order.  He  did  not  penetrate  the  Tropical  Forest 
a  hundred  miles.  At  his  borders,  where  the  forest  began,  lived 
tribes  as  wild  and  shy  as  any  on  earth.  The  Andean  civilization 
would  have  had  to  be  profoundly  modified  to  flourish  in  the 
jungle,  and  the  jungle  had  too  little  that  was  attractive  to  incite 
to  the  endeavor.  Some  thousands  of  years  more,  perhaps,  might 
have  witnessed  an  attempt  to  open  up  the  forest  and  make  it 
accessible.  Yet  when  one  recalls  how  little  has  been  done  in 
this  direction  by  Caucasian  civilization  in  four  centuries,  and 
how  superficial  its  exploitation  for  rubber  and  like  products 
has  been,  it  is  clear  that  such,  a  task  would  have  been  accom¬ 
plished  by  the  Peruvians  only  with  the  utmost  slowness. 

Yet  various  culture  elements  filtered  over  the  Andes  into  the 
hidden  lowlands.  The  Pan’s  pipe,  for  instance,  an  element  com¬ 
mon  to  the  Andes  and  the  Forest,  is  likely  to  have  originated 
in  the  higher  center.  Elements  like  the  blowgun,  the  hammock, 
the  chair  or  stool,  are  typical  of  the  northern  Forest  and  An¬ 
tilles,  and  may  have  infiltrated  these  areas  from  Colombia  or 
even  been  locally  developed.  The  same  is  true  of  the  cultivation 
of  the  cassava  or  manioc  plant,  from  which  we  draw  our  tapioca. 
This,  the  great  staple  of  the  Forest  region,  is  better  adapted  to 
its  humid  climate  than  is  maize,  which  flourishes  best  in  a  sub- 
arid  environment.  Cassava  may  therefore  be  looked  upon  as 
perhaps  a  local  substitute  for  maize,  evolved  as  a  domesticated 
plant  under  the  stimulus  of  an  already  established  maize  agri¬ 
culture.  Its  cultivation  has  evidently  spread  through  the  Forest 
region  from  a  single  source,  since  the  specialized  processes  of 
preparing  it  for  food — the  untreated  root  is  poisonous — are  rela¬ 
tively  uniform  wherever  it  is  grown.  Maize  is  not  unknown  in 
the  area,  but  less  used  than  cassava  wherever  the  forest  is  dense. 

A  characteristic  quality  of  those  Forest  culture-traits  which 
are  not  common  ancient  American  inheritance,  is  that,  whether 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


383 


of  Middle  American  or  local  origin,  they  are  detached  fragments, 
particular  devices  having  little  or  no  relation  to  one  another, 
like  the  hammock  and  the  blowgun,  or  cassava  and  the  Pan’s 
pipe.  Original  fundamental  processes,  higher  accomplishments 
necessitating  order  or  organization  of  effort,  are  lacking.  This 
is  precisely  the  condition  which  might  be  anticipated  when  a 
culture  too  low  to  take  over  a  higher  one  in  its  entirety  had  bor¬ 
rowed  from  it  here  and  there,  as  the  Forest  peoples  undoubtedly 
have  borrowed  from  Middle  America. 

Three  districts  within  the  Forest  area  have  previously  been 
mentioned  (§  174)  as  regions  in  which  the  forest  becomes  open 
or  disappears,  and  whose  type  of  culture  is  locally  modified: 
Guiana,  eastern  Brazil,  and  the  Chaco.  Of  these  the  Brazilian 
highlands  constitute  an  area  of  unusually  deficient  culture.  In 
parts  of  them  agriculture  and  pottery  seem  to  be  lacking.  These 
highlands  are  perhaps  to  be  construed  as  an  interior  marginal 
region  representing  an  isolation  within  the  greater  Forest  area. 
Had  these  highlands  been  in  juxtaposition  to  the  Andean  area, 
or  even  situated  near  it,  they  would  presumably  have  been  able 
to  take  over  Andean  culture  elements  more  successfully  than  the 
low-lying  Forest,  and  would  then  have  stood  out  from  this 
through  superiorities  instead  of  absences.  Their  remoteness, 
however,  enabled  the  intervening  Forest  region  to  shut  them  off 
from  Andean  influences  of  consequence,  while  giving  to  them 
only  part  of  its  own  low  cultural  content. 

The  peculiarities  of  the  Chaco  are  due  to  the  opposite  reason. 
The  Chaco  is  a  partly  open  country  at  the  southerly  extremity 
of  the  Forest.  It  lies  close  to  the  foot  of  the  Andes  where  these 
broaden  out  into  the  southern  Bolivian  plateau.  It  also  shades 
off  into  the  treeless  Patagonian  region.  It  is  thus  open 
to  influences  from  three  sides,  and  its  culture  appears  to  repre¬ 
sent  a  mixture  of  the  three  adjacent  ones.  The  basis  would 
seem  to  be  the  culture  of  the  Tropical  Forest,  but  definite  Pata¬ 
gonian  as  well  as  Andean  elements  are  traceable. 

203.  Patagonia 

Patagonia  is  par  excellence  the  peripheral  region  of  South 
America,  culturally  as  well  as  geographically.  As  regards 


384 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


civilization,  this  is  true  in  the  highest  degree  at  the  extreme  tip 
of  the  continent  about  Tierra  del  Fuego.  Many  of  the  most 
widely  spread  South  American  culture  traits  being  lacking  here, 
there  is  a  curious  resemblance  to  the  northerly  tribes  of  North 
America. 

Yet  even  this  culturally  disinherited  area  is  not  without  a 
few  local  developments  of  relatively  high  order.  The  most  strik¬ 
ing  is  the  plank-built  canoe  of  the  south  Chilean  archipelago. 
The  skill  to  carpenter  such  boats  was  exercised  in  only  one  other 
region  in  the  hemisphere ;  the  Santa  Barbara  Islands  of  Cali¬ 
fornia.  Curiously  enough  the  latter  is  also  a  district  of  com¬ 
paratively  backward  culture.  In  any  event  this  built-up  canoe 
of  the  rude  people  of  the  extreme  south  contrasts  strikingly  with 
the  lack  of  any  real  boats  among  the  advanced  nations  in  the 
Andean  area.  The  moral  would  seem  to  be  that  it  is  speculative 
to  base  much  theory  or  explanation  on  any  single  culture  trait. 

Of  other  elements  specific  to  the  Patagonian  region,  there 
might  be  mentioned  coiled  basketry  (§  104)  and  the  bolas.  This 
is  a  hunting  weapon  of  three  stones  attached  to  ropes  swung  so 
as  to  wind  around  the  neck  or  legs  of  game.  Except  at  the  ex¬ 
treme  south,  Patagonian  culture  was  profoundly  modified  by 
the  introduction  of  the  horse,  which  soon  after  the  arrival  of 
the  Spaniards  multiplied  on  the  open  plains.  The  horse  en¬ 
larged  the  ability  of  the  Patagonian  tribes  to  take  game,  espe¬ 
cially  in  the  Pampas  in  the  north,  increased  their  wealth,  and 
strengthened  their  warlike  interests.  The  same  change  occurred 
in  the  Chaco. 

204.  North  America:  the  Southwest 

In  North  America  the  Southwest  area  lies  at  the  point  where 
the  continent  spreads  out  fanwise.  It  is  therefore  the  gate  or 
transforming  station  through  which  Mexican  influences  flowed 
on  their  way  to  the  various  areas  beyond.  Whatever  of  Mexican 
culture  the  Pueblos  received  and  accepted,  they  worked  over 
before  they  passed  it  on.  This  reconstitution  gave  the  culture  a 
new  color.  Nearly  every  one  on  first  coming  in  contact  with 
Southwestern  culture  has  been  struck  with  its  distinctive  cast. 
Analysis,  however,  shows  few  intrinsic  elements  peculiar  to  it. 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


385 


The  novelty  as  compared  with  Mexico  lies  in  a  different  em¬ 
phasis  or  a  new  arrangement  of  the  elements.  Masonry,  for 
instance,  is  used  for  dwellings  instead  of  temples.  Town  life 
is  well  developed,  but  the  political  organization  which  accom¬ 
panies  it  in  Mexico  is  much  weaker  in  the  Southwest. 

205.  The  Southeast 

Superficially,  Southeastern  culture  appears  different  from 
Southwestern.  Much  of  the  seeming  difference  is  due  to  the 
wooded  and  rather  humid  environment;  another  portion  is  ac¬ 
counted  for  by  the  failure  of  the  Southeastern  tribes  to  build 
in  stone.  But  there  are  differences  that  go  deeper,  such  as  the 
poverty  of  Southeastern  ritual  and  the  comparative  strength 
of  political  organization.  The  religious  dwarfing  may  be  at¬ 
tributed  to  greater  distance  from  Mexico. 

The  precise  routes  of  diffusion  into  the  Southeast  are  not 
wholly  clear.  The  culture  center  of  the  area  lay  on  or  near  the 
lower  Mississippi — sufficiently  close  to  the  Southwest.  Yet  the 
district  which  is  now  Texas  intervened,  and  this  was  one  of  dis¬ 
tinctly  lower  culture,  largely  occupied  by  tribes  with  Plains 
affiliation.  Theoretically  it  would  have  been  possible  for  cul¬ 
tural  elements  to  travel  from  Mexico  along  the  Texas  coast  to 
the  Southeast.  Yet  what  little  is  known  about  the  tribes  of 
this  coast  indicates  that  they  were  backward.  A  third  possi¬ 
bility  for  the  transmission  of  culture  was  from  the  Antilles, 
especially  by  the  short  voyage  from  Cuba  or  the  Bahamas 
to  the  point  of  Florida.  Some  connections  by  this  route  almost 
certainly  took  place.  But  they  seem  to  have  affected  chiefly 
the  peninsula  of  Florida,  and  to  have  brought  less  into  the 
Southeast  as  a  whole  than  reached  it  overland. 

206.  The  Northern  Woodland 

The  Northeast  was  historically  dependent  on  the  Southeast 
as  this  was  on  the  Southwest  and  the  Southwest  on  Mexico.  It 
was  thus  the  third  stage  removed  from  the  origins  in  Middle 
America.  It  was  inferior  to  the  Southeast  in  several  points. 
Pottery  was  cruder,  clans  mostly  patrilinear  instead  of  matri- 


386 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


linear,  town  and  tribal  life  less  organized.  Some  exceptions 
within  the  Northeast  can  be  traced  to  direct  influences  or  mi¬ 
grations  from  the  Southeast.  The  matrilinear  and  confederated 
Iroquoian  tribes  of  the  Northeast,  for  instance,  were  linguistic 
relatives  of  the  Cherokee  in  the  Southeast. 

A  similar  movement  of  culture  or  peoples,  or  both,  occurred 
at  an  earlier  time  and  has  left  as  its  remains  the  mounds  of  the 
Ohio  valley — local  equivalents  of  the  Mexican  temple  pyramid. 
Some  of  these  are  of  surprising  bulk,  and  others  have  the  form 
of  animals.  Associated  with  them  are  earthwork  fortifications 
which  indicate  coherent  populational  groups  of  some  size.  The 
industries  of  the  Mound  Builders  were  also  on  a  somewhat 
higher  level,  especially  as  regards  artistic  quality,  than  those 
of  the  historic  tribes  of  the  region.  In  detail  the  Mound  Builder 
culture  represents  many  interesting  points  that  remain  to  be 
cleared  up.  In  the  large,  however,  it  was  a  temporary  local 
extension  of  the  Southeastern  culture,  from  which  flowed  its 
occasional  resemblances  to  Middle  America. 

207.  Plains  Area 

The  Plains  area  is  adjacent  to  the  Southwest,  but  a  review 
of  its  culture  elements  shows  that  a  surprisingly  small  fragment 
of  Southwestern  civilization  penetrated  it.  The  most  advanced 
Plains  tribes  seem  rather  to  have  been  in  dependence  on  the 
Southeast.  This  is  probably  to  be  explained  as  the  result  of 
a  flow  of  culture  up  the  more  immediate  Mississippi  valley.  The 
western  Plains,  close  to  the  Rocky  mountains,  were  sparsely 
populated  in  aboriginal  times,  and  life  there  must  have  been 
both  unsettled  and  narrow  in  its  scope.  Contacts  between  these 
western  Plains  and  the  Southwest  no  doubt  existed,  but  pre¬ 
sumably  the  Plains  tribes  were  too  backward,  and  too  engrossed 
in  their  own  special  adaptation  to  their  environment,  to  profit 
much  by  what  they  might  have  borrowed  from  the  Pueblos. 

Certain  specific  culture  traits  were  developed  on  the  Plains. 
The  nearly  exclusive  dependence  on  buffalo  stunted  the  culture 
in  some  directions,  but  led  to  the  originating  of  other  features. 
Thus  the  Plains  tribes  came  to  live  in  tipis — tents  made  of  the 
skin  of  the  buffalo — pitched  these  in  regular  order  in  the  camp 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


387 


circle,  and  traveled  with  the  bundled  tents  lashed  to  a  “travois” 
frame  dragged  by  dogs.  While  they  never  accomplished  any¬ 
thing  notable  in  the  way  of  confederating  themselves  into  larger 
stable  groups,  nor  even  in  effective  warfare,  they  did  develop 
a  system  of  4  ‘  coup  counting  ”  or  military  honors  which  loomed 
large  in  their  life. 

During  the  seventeenth  century  the  horse  was  introduced 
or  became  abundant  on  the  Plains.  It  reached  the  Indians 
from  Spanish  sources,  as  is  shown  by  their  adopting  modifica¬ 
tions  of  Spanish  riding  gear  and  methods  'of  mounting.  The 
horse  gave  them  an  extension  of  range  and  a  greater  sureness 
of  food  supply;  more  leisure  also  resulted.  The  consequence 
was  a  general  upward  swing  of  the  culture,  which  put  it,  as 
regards  outward  appearances,  on  a  par  with  the  cultures  of 
other  areas  that  in  purely  aboriginal  times  had  outranked  the 
Plains.  This  development  due  to  the  horse  is  in.  many  ways 
comparable  to  that  which  occurred  in  the  Patagonian  area,  but 
with  one  difference.  The  Patagonians  possessed  a  meager  cul¬ 
ture.  The  introduction  of  the  horse  resulted  in  their  hybridiz¬ 
ing  two  elements  so  dissimilar  as  their  own  low  civilization 
and  the  Caucasian  one.  The  Plains  culture  had  a  somewhat 
fuller  content.  The  Plains  tribes  were  also  protected  from  inti¬ 
mate  Caucasian  contacts  for  nearly  two  centuries,  during  which 
they  were  able  to  use  the  new  and  valuable  acquisition  of  the 
horse  to  enrich  and  deepen  their  culture  without  essentially 
remodeling  it.  Horse  transport  was  substituted  for  dog  trans¬ 
port,  tipis  became  more  commodious  and  comfortable,  the  camp 
circle  spread  out  larger,  more  property  could  be  accumulated. 
Warfare  continued  to  be  carried  on  as  a  species  of  game  with 
military  honors  as  prizes,  but  now  provided  the  added  incentive 
of  substantial  booty  of  herds  easily  driven  off. 

208.  The  Northwest  Coast 

The  North  Pacific  coast  is  the  most  anomalous  of  the  North 
American  areas,  and  its  history  is  in  many  ways  unique.  It  is 
nearer  in  miles  to  the  Southwest  and  Mexico  than  is  the  North¬ 
east,  yet  agriculture  and  pottery  never  reached  it.  At  the  same 
time  the  Northwest  culture  is  obviously  more  than  a  marginal 


388 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


one.  People  with  so  elaborate  a  social  organization  as  these 
Coast  tribes,  and  with  so  outstanding  an  art,  were  certainly  not 
peripheral  dependents.  The  explanation  is  that  much  of  the 
development  of  culture  in  the  Middle  American  region  never 
became  established  in  the  Northwest,  but  that  this  area  mani¬ 
fested  a  vitality  and  initiative  of  its  own  which  led  to  the  inde¬ 
pendent  development  of  a  number  of  important  culture  constitu¬ 
ents.  The  art  is  in  the  main  of  such  local  origin,  since  it  does 
not  affiliate  closely  with  the  art  of  other  areas.  Very  important 
too  was  the  stress  increasingly  laid  on  wealth  in  the  Northwest. 
Society  was  stratified  in  terms  of  it.  The  potlatch,  a  combina¬ 
tion  of  feast,  religious  ceremony,  and  distribution  of  property, 
is  another  peculiar  outcome  of  the  same  tendency.  The  use  of 
clentalium  shells  as  a  sort  of  standard  currency  is  a  further  mani¬ 
festation.  The  working  of  wood  was  carried  farther  than  any¬ 
where  else.  Several  traits,  such  as  the  solstitial  calendar  and 
matrilinear  clans,  which  the  Northwest  Coast  shares  with  other 
areas,  have  already  been  cited  as  probable  instances  of  inde¬ 
pendent  evolution  on  the  spot. 

All  in  all,  then,  it  is  necessary  to  look  upon  the  Northwest 
Coast  culture  as  one  that  fell  far  short  of  the  high  civilizations 
of  Middle  America,  in  fact  barely  equaled  that  of  the  Southwest, 
yet  as  the  only  one  in  the  New  World  that  grew  to  any  notability 
with  but  slight  dependence  on  Middle  America.  It  is  an  isolated 
secondary  peak  standing  aloof  from  the  greater  one  that  cul¬ 
minated  in  Mexico  and  Peru  and  to  which  all  the  remainder  of 
the  hemisphere  was  subordinate.  Figure  35  visualizes  this  his¬ 
toric  relation. 


209.  Northern  Marginal  Areas 

The  Arctic,  Mackenzie,  Plateau,  and  California  areas  were 
also  but  little  influenced  by  Middle  American  civilization.  In 
fact,  most  of  the  elements  which  they  share  with  it  may  be  con¬ 
sidered  direct  survivals  of  the  general  proto-American  culture 
out  of  which  the  early  Middle  American  civilization  emerged. 
Yet  why  these  areas  on  the  Pacific  side  of  North  America  should 
have  profited  so  much  less  by  the  diffusion  of  Mexican  advance¬ 
ment  than  the  areas  on  the  Atlantic,  is  not  clear.  In  the  mostly 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


389 


frozen  Arctic  and  Mackenzie  tracts,  the  hostile  environment 
may  have  forbidden.  But  this  explanation  certainly  does  not 
apply  to  the  California  area  which  lies  at  the  very  doors  of  the 
Southwest  and  yet  refrained  from  taking  over  such  fundamentals 
as  agriculture  and  pottery.  Sparseness  of  population  cannot  be 
invoked  as  a  cause,  since  at  least  along  the  coast  the  density  of 
population  was  greater  than  in  almost  all  the  eastern  half  of 
the  continent. 

Of  the  people  of  these  four  areas,  the  Eskimo  are  the  only 
ones  that  evinced  notable  originality.  It  is  easy  to  attribute 
this  quality  of  theirs  to  the  stern  rigor  of  environment.  In  fact, 
it  has  been  customary  to  appeal  to  the  Eskimo  as  an  example 
of  the  popular  maxim  that  necessity  is  the  mother  of  invention. 
Yet  it  is  clear  that  no  great  weight  can  be  attached  to  this  simple 
philosophy.  It  is  true  that  without  his  delicately  adjusted  har¬ 
poon,  his  skin  boat,  his  snow  hut,  his  dog  sled,  and  his  seal  oil 
lamp,  the  Eskimo  could  not  have  maintained  an  existence  on 
the  terrifically  inhospitable  shores  of  the  Arctic.  But  there  is 
nothing  to  show  that  he  was  forced  to  live  in  this  environment. 
Stretches  of  mountains,  desert,  and  tundra  in  other  parts  of  the 
world  were  often  left  uninhabited  by  uncivilized  peoples.  Why 
did  not  the  Eskimo  abandon  his  Arctic  shore  or  refuse  to  settle 
it  in  the  first  place,  crowding  his  way  instead  into  some  more 
favorable  habitat?  His  was  a  sturdy  stock  that  should  have 
had  at  least  an  equal  chance  in  a  competition  with  other  peoples. 

Furthermore  it  is  evident  that  rigorous  environment  does  not 
always  force  development  or  special  cultural  adaptations.  The 
tribes  of  the  Mackenzie- Yukon  and  the  most  northerly  part  of 
the  Northeast  area  lived  under  a  climate  about  as  harsh  as  that 
of  the  Eskimo.  In  fact  they  were  immediate  neighbors ;  yet  their 
culture  is  definitely  more  meager.  A  series  of  the  most  skilled 
devices  of  the  Eskimo  were  wanting  among  them.  •  If  necessity 
were  truly  as  productive  a  cause  of  cultural  progress  as  is 
commonly  thought,  these  Athabascan  and  Algonkin  Indians 
should  have  been  stimulated  into  a  mechanical  ingenuity  com¬ 
parable  to  that  of  the  Eskimo,  instead  of  continuing  to  rank 
below  them. 

These  considerations  compel  the  conclusion  that  the  Eskimo 
did  not  develop  the  achievements  of  his  culture  because  he  lived 


390 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


in  his  difficult  environment,  but  that  he  lived  in  the  environ¬ 
ment  because  he  possessed  a  culture  capable  of  coping  with  it. 
This  does  not  mean  that  he  had  his  culture  worked  out  to  the 
last  detail  before  he  settled  on  the  American  shores  of  the 
Arctic  ocean.  It  does  mean  that  he  possessed  the  fundamentals 
of  the  culture,  and  the  habits  of  ingenuity,  the  mechanical  and 
practical  turn  of  mind,  which  enabled  him  to  carry  it  farther 
and  meet  new  requirements  as  they  came  up.  Where  and  how 
he  acquired  the  fundamentals  is  obscure.  It  is  well  to  remem¬ 
ber  in  this  connection  that  the  physical  type  of  the  Eskimo  is 
the  most  distinctive  in  the  New  World,  and  that  his  speech  has 
as  yet  shown  no  inclination  to  connect  with  any  other  American 
language.  It  is  conceivable  that  the  origin  of  the  Eskimo  is 
•  to  be  set  at  a  time  later  than  that  of  the  American  race  and 
somewhere  in  Asia.  The  fact  that  at  present  there  are  Eskimo 
villages  on  the  Siberian  side  of  Behring  Strait  is  too  recent  and 
local  a  phenomenon  to  afford  strong  confirmation  of  such  a  view, 
but  certainly  does  not  operate  against  it.  Somewhere  in  the 
Siberian  region,  then,  within  occasional  reach  of  influences 
emanating  from  higher  centers  of  civilization  in  Asia  or  Europe, 
the  Eskimo  may  have  laid  the  foundations  of  their  culture, 
specialized  it  further  as  they  encountered  new  conditions  in 
new  Asiatic  habitats,  and  evolved  only  the  finishing  touches  of 
their  remarkable  adaptation  after  they  spread  along  the  north¬ 
ernmost  shores  of  America.  Some  of  the  Old  World  culture  in¬ 
fluences  which  had  reached  them  before  they  entered  America 
may  go  back  to  the  Magdalenian  culture  of  the  Palaeolithic. 
There  are  at  any  rate  certain  resemblances  between  Magdalenian 
and  Eskimo  cultures  that  have  repeatedly  impressed  observers  : 
the  harpoon,  spear  thrower,  lamp,  carving,  and  graphic  art 
(§67). 


210.  Later  Asiatic  Influences 

One  set  of  influences  the  Eskimo,  and  to  a  lesser  degree  the 
peoples  of  adjacent  areas,  were  unquestionably  subject  to  and 
profited  by :  sporadic  culture  radiations  of  fairly  late  date  from 
Asia.  Such  influences  were  probably  not  specially  important, 
but  they  are  discernible.  They  came  probably  as  disjected  bits 


CIVILIZATION  IN  NATIVE  AMERICA 


391 


independent  of  one  another.  There  may  have  been  as  many 
that  reached  America  and  failed  of  acceptance  as  were  actually 
taken  up.  In  another  connection  (§  92)  it  has  been  pointed  out 
how  the  tale  known  as  the  “ Magic  Flight”  has  spread  from  its 
Old  World  center  of  origin  well  into  northwestern  America. 
A  similar  case  has  been  made  out  for  a  material  element:  the 
sinew-backed  or  composite  bow  (§  101),  first  found  some  three  to 
four  thousand  years  ago  in  western  Asia.  This  is  constructed, 
in  Asia,  of  a  layer  each  of  wood,  sinew,  and  horn ;  in  its  simpler 
American  form,  which  barely  extends  as  far  south  as  the  Mex¬ 
ican  frontier,  of  either  wood  or  horn  reinforced  with  sinew. 
Body  armor  of  slats,  sewn  or  wound  into  a  garment,  seems  to 
have  spread  from  Asia  to  the  Northwest  Coast.  The  skin  boat, 
represented  in  its  most  perfect  type  by  the  Eskimo  kayak;  the 
tipi  or  conical  tent  of  skins;  birchbark  vessels;  sleds  or  tobog¬ 
gans  with  dog  traction ;  bark  canoes  with  underhung  ends ;  and 
garments  of  skin  tailored — cut  and  sewn — to  follow  the  con¬ 
tours  of  the  body,  may  all  prove  to  represent  culture  importa¬ 
tions  from  Asia.  At  any  rate  they  are  all  restricted  in  America 
to  the  part  north  and  west  of  a  line  connecting  the  St.  Law¬ 
rence  and  Colorado  rivers,  the  part  of  the  continent  that  is 
nearest  to  Asia.  South  and  east  of  this  line,  apparently,  Middle 
American  influences  were  strong  enough  to  provide  the  local 
groups  Avith  an  adequate  culture  of  American  source ;  and,  the 
Asiatic  influences  being  feeble  on  account  of  remoteness,  Asiatic 
culture  traits  failed  of  acceptance.  It  is  also  noteworthy  that 
all  of  the  traits  last  mentioned  are  absent  on  the  Northwest  Coast, 
in  spite  of  its  proximity  to  Asia.  The  presumable  reason  is 
that  the  Northwest  Coast,  having  worked  out  a  relatively  ad¬ 
vanced  and  satisfactory  culture  adaptation  of  its  oAvn,  had  noth¬ 
ing  to  gain  by  taking  over  these  elementary  devices;  whereas 
to  the  culturally  poorer  peoples  of  the  Arctic,  Mackenzie,  Pla¬ 
teau,  and  in  part  of  the  California,  Plains,  and  Northeastern 
areas,  they  proved  a  valuable  acquisition. 

A  careful  analysis  of  Eskimo  culture  in  comparison  with  north 
and  east  Asiatic  culture  may  reveal  further  instances  of  ele¬ 
ments  that  have  spread  from  one  hemisphere  to  the  other.  Yet 
the  sum  total  of  such  relatively  late  contributions  from  the 
civilization  of  the  Old  World  to  that  of  the  New,  during  the  last 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


392 

one  or  two  or  three  or  four  thousand  years,  is  not  likely  to 
aggregate  any  great  bulk.  Since  the  early  culture  importation 
of  the  period  of  the  settlement  of  America  eight  or  ten  thousand 
years  ago,  the  influences  of  the  Old  World  have  always  been 
slight  as  compared  with  the  independent  developments  within 
the  New  World.  Even  within  the  northwestern  segment  of 
North  America,  the  bulk  of  culture  would  seem  to  have  been 
evolved  on  the  spot.  But  mingled  with  this  local  growth,  more 
or  less  modifying  it  in  the  nearer  regions,  and  reaching  its 
greatest  strength  among  the  Eskimo,  has  been  a  trickling  series 
of  later  Asiatic  influences  which  it  would  be  mistaken  wholly 
to  overlook. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


THE  GROWTH  OF  CIVILIZATION:  OLD  WORLD 
PREHISTORY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


211.  Sources  of  knowledge. — 212.  Chronology  of  the  grand  divisions  of 
culture  history. — 213.  The  Lower  and  Upper  Palaeolithic. — 214.  Race  in¬ 
fluence  and  regional  differentiation  in  the  Lower  Palaeolithic. — 215.  Upper 
Palaeolithic  culture  growths  and  races. — 216.  The  Palaeolithic  aftermath: 
Azilian. — 217-  The  Neolithic:  its  early  phase. — 218.  Pottery  and  the  bow. 
— 219.  Bone  tools, — 220.  The  dog. — 221.  The  hewn  ax. — 222.  The  Full 
Neolithic. — 223.  Origin  of  domesticated  animals  and  plants. — 224.  Other 
traits  of  the  Full  Neolithic. — 225.  The  Bronze  Age:  Copper  and  Bronze 
phases. — 226.  Traits  associated  with  bronze. — 227.  Iron. — 228.  First  use 
and  spread  of  iron. — 229.  The  Hallstadt  and  La  Tene  Periods. — 230.  Sum¬ 
mary  of  development:  Regional  differentiation. — 231.  The  Scandinavian 
area  as  an  example. — 232.  The  late  Palaeolithic  Ancylus  or  Maglemose 
Period. — 233.  The  Early  Neolithic  Litorina  or  Kitchenmidden  Period. — 
234.  The  Full  Neolithic  and  its  subdivisions  in  Scandinavia. — 235.  The 
Bronze  Age  and  its  periods  in  Scandinavia. — 236.  Problems  of  chronology. 
— 237.  Principles  of  the  prehistoric  spread  of  culture. 

211.  Sources  of  Knowledge 

The  story  of  the  growth  and  development  of  culture  in  the 
Western  Hemisphere  which  has  been  sketched  in  reconstruction 
in  the  last  chapter  is  built  up  from  the  incomplete  information 
of  excavations  and  the  indirect  evidence  of  culture  trait  distri¬ 
butions  and  analyses.  Earlier  than  about  ten  thousand  years 
ago,  this  hemisphere  has  no  known  human  history.  In  the  Old 
World,  conditions  are  doubly  different.  There  is  a  long  primeval 
record,  stretching  perhaps  a  hundred  thousand  years  beyond 
8000  B.C.,  documented  much  like  the  subsequent  culture  history 
of  America,  but  with  a  wealth  of  geological,  faunal,  and  skeletal 
data  to  compensate  for  the  loss  of  ancient  cultural  evidences 
in  the  lapse  of  time.  Secondly,  for  the  last  ten  thousand  years, 
there  is  a  fuller  record  than  for  America.  This  greater  fullness 
is  partly  due  to  the  earlier  start  toward  its  higher  forms  which 
civilization  took  in  the  Eastern  Hemisphere.  And  this  rela¬ 
tively  early  advancement  brought  it  about  that  by  3000  B.C. 
adequate  systems  of  writing  had  been  achieved  in  Africa  and 

393 


394 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


Asia,  so  that  contemporary  inscriptions  have  been  preserved  to 
throw  direct  light  on  the  thoughts  and  institutions  of  the  people 
of  that  day,  and  to  date  the  centuries  of  their  rulers  for  us. 
These  last  five  thousand  years  thus  belong  to  history,  rather 
than  to  prehistory,  in  some  parts  of  the  hemisphere;  and  they 
allow  many  a  close  inference  as  to  what  happened  in  the  pre¬ 
vious  five  thousand  years  when  writing  was  as  yet  unknown  or 
its  first  systems  were  being  evolved. 

These  ten  thousand  years  since  the  close  of  the  Old  Stone  Age, 
half  of  them  studied  by  the  methods  of  anthropology,  half  also 
by  those  of  history,  and  the  whole  forming  the  richest  field  in 
human  culture  history,  are  the  subjects  of  the  present  chapter 
and  the  next. 

First,  however,  it  is  necessary  to  refer  back  to  the  earliest 
known  development  of  civilization  in  the  Old  Stone  Age  (Chap¬ 
ter  VI),  whose  close  is  our  present  starting  point. 

4 

212.  Chronology  of  the  Grand  Divisions  of  Culture  History 

The  period  of  human  existence  since  the  first  tool  was  made 
is  generally  divided  into  four  grand  divisions  (§  66,  67)  :  the 
Palaeolithic  or  Old  Stone  Age ;  the  Neolithic  or  New  Stone  Age ; 
the  Bronze  Age ;  and  the  Iron  Age.  The  duration  of  these  four 
ages  is  diverse  and  notably  diminishing  from  earliest  to  latest. 
The  last  three  are  comprised  within  the  past  ten  thousand  years : 
8000  B.C.  may  be  looked  upon  as  a  reasonably  accurate  date  for 
the  commencement  of  the  Neolithic.  For  western  Europe,  at 
least,  the  probable  error  of  this  date  is  not  over  one  or  at  most 
two  thousand  years.  Back  of  this  approximately  fixed  point 
stretches  the  immeasurably  longer  Palaeolithic,  for  the  deter¬ 
mination  of  whose  duration  there  is  available  not  even  any 
semi-historical  evidence,  and  which  can  only  be  estimated  in 
terms  of  geological  alterations,  continental  glaciations,  and 
faunal  and  floral  changes — all  unsatisfactory  means  for  arriving 
at  an  absolute  chronology  expressible  in  years. 

To  a  vague  100,000  B.C.  as  the  tentative  figure  for  the  begin¬ 
ning  of  the  PalaBolithic,  and  an  approximate  8000  B.C.  for  the 
commencement  of  the  Neolithic,  there  can  be  added  3000  B.C. 
for  the  onset  of  the  Bronze  and  1000  B.C.  of  the  Iron  Age.  The 


PREHISTORY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


395 


last  two  dates  are  averages  only.  The  Greek  islands,  for  in¬ 
stance,  received  bronze  about  this  period,  the  Orient  had  it 
earlier,  western  Europe  not  until  about  2500  B.C.,  northern 
Europe  still  later.  In  the  same  way,  iron  is  well  attested  for 
western  Asia  in  the  thirteenth  century  before  Christ,  for  Cen¬ 
tral  Europe  and  France  about  900  B.C.,  in  Scandinavia  some 
centuries  later,  in  fact  becoming  abundant  only  shortly  before 
the  Roman  period. 

In  the  wide  sense,  the  outstanding  generalizations  derivable 
from  these  figures  are  twofold.  As  regards  the  later  periods, 
those  of  metal  and  probably  the  Neolithic,  the  west  lagged  be¬ 
hind  the  east,  the  north  behind  the  south;  Asia  preceded  and 
invented,  Europe  followed  and  imitated.  As  regards  the  entire 
duration,  a  tremendous  disproportion  is  observable.  The  vast 
bulk  of  the  total  time  of  culture  is  covered  by  the  Palaeolithic: 
the  three  following  Ages  are  all  squeezed  into  a  tenth  of  the 
whole.  Within  this  fraction  again  the  Neolithic  takes  up  half, 
leaving  the  two  metal  Ages  to  divide  the  other  half  between 
them.  There  is  a  clear  tendency  toward  acceleration  of  develop¬ 
ment. 


213.  The  Lower  and  Upper  Paleolithic 

Within  the  Old  Stone  Age,  a  primary  division  is  to  be  made 
between  the  Lower  and  Upper  Palaeolithic.  The  Lower  Palaeo¬ 
lithic  comprises  the  Chellean,  Acheulean,  and  Mousterian  pe¬ 
riods,  when  Europe  was  inhabited  by  Neandertal  man,  who  was 
distinct  from  the  modern  human  species,  and  possibly  by  a  pre- 
Neandertal  race  not  yet  discovered.  The  Upper  Palaeolithic,  or 
Reindeer  Age,  consists  of  the  Aurignacian,  Solutrean,  and  Mag- 
dalenian,  with  the  Azilian  as  epilogue.  Through  these  Upper 

Palaeolithic  periods  long-headed  branches  of  Homo  sapiens — our- 

/ 

selves — existed:  the  Cro-Magnon,  Grimaldi,  and  Briinn  types, 
some  of  them  foreshadowing  the  existing  Caucasian  and  Negroid 
races  (§14,  16-18).  The  longest  step  forward  in  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  European  Palaeolithic  civilization  comes  in  the  passage 
from  its  Lower  to  its  Upper  phase.  Before  this  transition,  new 
achievements  were  rare  and  their  total  small.  The  use  of  fire, 
of  flint  cores  and  flakes,  of  fracturing  and  retouching,  possibly 


396 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


the  use  of  wooden  handles,  a  minimal  employment  of  bone,  and 
a  definite  disposal  of  the  dead,  about  sum  up  known  human 
attainments  to  the  end  of  the  Lower  Palaeolithic  (§  81). 

Compared  with  this  stock  of  culture,  that  of  the  Upper  Palaeo¬ 
lithic  is  elaborate.  Bone  awls  and  weapon  points ;  shell  neck¬ 
laces  and  armlets ;  clothing ;  painting  of  the  dead ;  sculpture  and 
engraving — a  greater  number  of  elements  than  the  Lower  Palaeo¬ 
lithic  had  been  able  to  accumulate  in  perhaps  75,000  years — 
appear  in  the  Aurignacian.  The  foundations  of  the  whole  of 
the  Upper  Palaeolithic  civilization  were  laid  in  this  period.  That 
the  Solutrean  added  needles  and  surface  retouching  of  flint,  the 
Magdalenian  a  more  vigorous  development  of  pictorial  line  and 
use  of  colors,  lamps,  harpoons,  and  spear  throwers,  represented 
in  the  main  only  an  enriching  of  the  general  Upper  Palaeolithic 
culture,  whose  essentials  were  determined  at  the  outset.1 

214.  Race  Influence  and  Regional  Differentiation  in  the 

Lower  Palaeolithic 

This  profound  change  raises  a  natural  conjecture.  The  Lower 
Palaeolithic  culture,  at  least  in  its  latest  form,  was  carried  by 
Neandertal  man;  Upper  Palaeolithic  culture  is  in  great  part 
associated  with  Cro-Magnon  man,  whose  anatomy  was  nearer 
our  own.  Did  not  this  relatively  modern  structure  involve  also 
a  relatively  modern  set  of  mental  faculties,  and  these  in  turn, 
by  their  own  sheer  worth,  produce  the  richer  culture  ?  The  sup¬ 
position  is  plausible  enough,  and  has  been  made.  But  it  is 
sounder  procedure  to  withhold  commitment  of  opinion.  The 
inference  involves  the  assumption  that  approach  to  our  own 
bodily  type  is  accompanied  by  higher  native  intelligence;  and 
the  further  assumption  that  higher  intelligence  will  auto¬ 
matically  produce  advance  in  civilization.  Probable  as  both 

i  So  primary  is  the  distinction  within  the  Palaeolithic  of  its  Lower  and 
Upper  halves,  that  some  authors,  for  purposes  of  elementary  presentation, 
have  felt  justified  in  calling  these  Valves  the  Old  and  the  Middle  Stone 
Ages.  This  is  unfortunate  because  this  ‘‘Middle”  Stone  Age  is  in  scientific 
writings  always  included  in  the  Palaeolithic,  whereas  the  Mesolithic  or 
Middle  Stone  Age  of  many  archaeologists  embraces  the  more  or  less  transi¬ 
tional  periods  such  as  the  Azilian  and  Maglemose  (below,  §  216)  between 
the  end  of  the  Palaeolithic  and  the  definitive  or  Full  Neolithic.  Nevertheless, 
the  unorthodox  terminology  has  the  merit  of  condensing  detail  with  a 
broad  sweep. 


/ 


PREHISTORY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


397 


these  assumptions  may  seem,  they  are  still  undemonstrated,  in 
general  and  in  particular.  The  application  of  the  assumptions 
to  the  facts  therefore  gives  an  apparent  explanation  in  terms 
of  an  ultimate  but  really  unknown  causality.  By  accepting  this 
hypothetical  causality,  it  turns  attention  away  from  the  ques¬ 
tion  of  its  validity.  But  the  validity  of  the  causal  relation 
between  the  body  and  intelligence,  and  between  intelligence  and 
culture,  is  precisely  a  point  that  needs  elucidation.  It  needs 
elucidation  as  much  as  does  the  change  of  civilization  that  oc¬ 
curred  in  Europe  about  25,000  years  ago ;  and  is  a  much  broader 
problem — indeed,  part  of  the  most  fundamental  problem  that 
anthropology  still  faces  as  unsolved.  Instead  of  a  snapping 
interpretation  of  a  dubious  point  in  human  history  in  terms  of 
a  couple  of  still  more  dubious  principles,  it  will  be  wiser  to  lay 
these  principles  aside,  for  a  time  at  least,  and  to  reconsider  more 
intensively  the  facts  bearing  on  the  particular  point  at  issue. 

There  are  two  obvious  lines  of  evidence  that  may  help  to  throw 
light  on  the  change  from  the  Lower  to  the  Upper  Paleolithic, 
and  in  fact  aid  understanding  of  the  whole  Paleolithic.  The 
first  comprises  the  relations  between  western  Europe  and  other 
areas  during  that  period ;  the  second,  regional  differences  within 
Europe.  In  the  previous  chapter  on  the  Paleolithic,  such  con¬ 
siderations  have  been  disregarded  in  favor  of  a  schematic  pres¬ 
entation  of  what  seemed  the  salient  facts  in  a  field  made  suffi¬ 
ciently  difficult  by  the  antiquity  and  incompleteness  of  data. 
The  best  of  these  data,  and  those  which  arrange  themselves  most 
systematically,  are  those  from  Europe,  which  have  therefore  been 
presented  as  if  they  constituted  a  self-sufficient  unit.  But  it  is 
unlikely  that  the  culture  should  have  developed  in  Europe  in 
complete  detachment  for  a  hundred  thousand  years  or  that  it 
should  have  remained  identical  over  the  whole  of  that  continent. 
It  is  necessary,  in  short,  to  revise  the  simple  outline  of  Chapter 
VI  by  giving  heed  to  geographical  and  other  disturbing  con¬ 
siderations. 

First  of  all,  it  is  well  to  realize  that  what  has  heretofore  been 
called  the  first  tool,  the  Chellean  pick  or  coup-de-poing,  was  not 
so  much  the  only  tool  of  its  period  as  the  most  characteristic 
one.  It  seems  to  have  been  accompanied  at  all  times  and  every¬ 
where  by  smaller,  less  regularly  made  implements,  some  of  which 


398 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


were  even  worked  out  of  flakes  instead  of  cores  and  subjected 
to  crude  blow-retouching.  Further,  these  medium-sized  pieces 
were  probably  “invented”  before  the  coup-de-poing ;  which  is 
after  all  what  might  be  expected,  the  coup-de-poing  being  a  com¬ 
paratively  effective,  regularly  shaped,  symmetrical  implement 
involving  both  an  ideal  of  form  and  a  tolerable,  rough  skill  to 
produce.  Several  Pre-Chellean  stations,  containing  such  smaller 
implements  but  no  coups-de-poing,  are  now  recognized  by  many 
specialists  in  prehistory.  The  most  notable  are  those  of  St. 
Acheul  and  Abbeville,  in  northern  France ;  the  remainder  are 
in  the  same  part  of  that  country,  in  Belgium,  or  in  southern 
England,  which  at  that  time  formed  part  of  the  continent.  The 
fauna  of  some  of  these  sites  is  an  early  one  and  has  been 
attributed  to  the  second  interglacial  era  (§69)  as  compared 
with  the  third  interglacial  in  which  the  Chellean  and  Acheulean 
fall. 

When  the  Chellean  proper,  with  its  typical,  well-developed 
picks,  is  examined,  it  becomes  clear  that  the  distribution  of  this 
distinctive  form  is  limited  to  a  narrow  strip  of  westernmost 
Europe  from  Belgium  to  Spain.  The  picks  recur  in  north  and 
east  Africa  and  the  districts  of  Asia  bordering  on  the  Mediter¬ 
ranean.  They  may  not  be  of  exactly  the  same  age  in  these 
regions  as  in  westerly  Europe,  but  they  are  of  the  same  type, 
and  in  view  of  the  continuity  of  their  distribution  must  be  his¬ 
torically  connected.  In  fact,  the  coup-de-poing  Chellean  might 
well  be  described  as  essentially  an  African  (or  Africo- Asian) 
development  which  underwent  an  extension  across  what  was 
then  the  land-bridge  of  Gibraltar  up  the  Atlantic  face  of  Europe 
(Fig.  37). 

The  remainder  of  Europe  was  evidently  also  inhabited  in  this 
era ;  but  by  people  of  a  variant  culture.  From  Germany  east¬ 
ward  into  Russia,  possibly  Siberia,  implements  were  worked 
which  in  part  suggest  the  Pre-Chellean  ones  of  northern  France, 
in  part  developments  of  such  Pre-Chellean  pieces,  and  in  part 
forms  approaching  Mousterian  types.  They  do  not  include 
Chellean  picks.  The  name  Pre-Mousterian  has  been  proposed 
for  this  central  and  east  European  culture.  This  name  is  ap¬ 
propriate,  provided  it  is  remembered  that  Pre-Mousterian  de¬ 
notes  not  a  phase  intermediate  between  the  Acheulean  and  Mous- 


PREHISTORY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


399 


terian  of  western  Europe,  but  a  culture  developed,  like  the 
Chellean,  yet  more  or  less  independently,  out  of  the  Pre- 


Fig.  37.  Early  Lower  Palaeolithic  culture-areas  (about  100,000- 
50,000  B.C.).  Vertical  shading,  Ckellean-Ackeulean  culture,  with 
coups-de-poing.  The  principal  European  districts  containing  typical 
Chellean  coups-de-poing  are  marked  “C.”  Stippling,  “Pre-Mousterian” 
culture,  probably  contemporaneous  with  Chellean  and  Acheulean,  but 
lacking  coups-de-poing.  White,  uninhabited  or  unexplored.  (Mainly 
after  Obermayer.) 

Chellean,  and  approximately  coeval  with  the  pure  Chellean  of 
western  Europe  and  its  Acheulean  continuation.  In  other 
words,  two  culture-areas,  an  African-west-European  and  an  east 


400 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


European,  begin  to  be  discernible  from  an  extremely  early  time 
in  the  Lower  Palaeolithic  (Fig.  37). 

During  the  Acheulean,  the  western  culture  spread  somewhat: 
into  southern  England,  southeastern  France,  Italy,  and  began 
to  overlap  with  the  eastern  culture  along  the  Rhine.  In  the 
Mousterian,  an  assimilation  seems  to  have  taken  place :  culture, 
or  at  least  flint  industry,  became  more  uniform  over  the  whole 
of  Europe,  and  in  a  measure  the  near  parts  of  Asia  and  Africa 
also.  This  general  Mousterian  culture,  with  its  small  imple¬ 
ments  and  emphasis  on  retouching,  seems  more  likely  to  have 
evolved  out  of  the  pickless  eastern  Pre-Mousterian  than  out  of 
the  western  Chellean-Acheulean  with  its  large  hewn  coups-de- 
poing. 

This  would  suggest  an  eastern  origin  for  Mousterian  man — 
the  Neandertal  race.  But  it  is  well  not  to  proceed  beyond  some 
slight  probability  on  this  point  because  it  is  by  no  means  cer¬ 
tain  that  culture  traveled  only  as  races  traveled.  In  their 
simple  way,  culture  contacts  without  migrations  may  have  been 
substantially  as  effective  in  shaping  or  altering  civilization  fifty 
thousand  years  ago  as  to-day.  For  all  that  can  be  demonstrated 
at  present,  the  Mousterian  Neandertal  men  of  western  Europe 
may  have  been  the  blood  descendants  of  the  undiscovered 
Chellean-Acheulean  inhabitants  of  western  Europe  who  had 
learned  more  effective  retouching  and  smaller  tools  from  the 
east  Europeans. 

215.  Upper  Palaeolithic  Culture  Growths  and  Races 

With  the  advent  of  the  Upper  Palaeolithic,  possibly  some 
25,000  years  ago,  the  divergent  culture-areas  of  the  early  Lower 
Palaeolithic  which  had  become  largely  effaced  during  the  Mous¬ 
terian,  emerge  again;  but  with  shifted  boundaries.  The  line  of 
demarcation  now  is  no  longer  formed  by  the  Rhine  and  the 
Alps,  but  by  the  Pyrenees.  Throughout  the  Upper  Palaeolithic, 
most  of  Spain  formed  an  annex  to  the  North  African  province, 
whose  culture  has  been  named  the  Capsian  after  the  type  station 
of  Gafsa  in  Algiers.  The  Aurignacian,  Solutrean,  and  Magda- 
lenian  as  they  have  been  previously  described  (§72-81)  ran 
their  course  in  a  middle  European  belt  stretching  from  France 


PREHISTORY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


401 


to  Poland  (Figs.  38,  39).  Northern  Spain,  southern  England, 
at  times  Italy  and  southern  Russia,  were  more  or  less  in  this 
mid-European  province.  The  Balkans  remain  insufficiently  ex- 


Fig.  38.  Aurignaeian  culture-areas  (about  25,000-18,000  B.C.). 
1,  West-central  European  Aurignaeian,  with  art.  2,  Italian  Aurigna- 
cian.  3,  Lower  Capsian  of  North  Africa  and  Spain.  4,  Lower  Cap- 
sian  of  Syria.  5,  South  Russia,  perhaps  post- Aurignaeian.  (Mainly 
after  Obermaver.) 

plored ;  all  northernmost  Europe  was  still  uninhabited.  In 
general,  it  may  be  said  that  the  mid-European  Upper  Palaeo¬ 
lithic  culture  is  characterized  by  the  associated  traits  of  work 
in  bone  and  art;  the  contemporary  Spanish- African  Capsian 


402 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


by  specialization  along  the  line  of  increasingly  smaller  and  finer 
flint  implements,  culminating  in  neat  microliths  measurable  only 
in  fractions  of  inches. 

The  southern  equivalent  of  the  mid-European  Aurignacian 
was  the  Lower  Capsian,  of  at  least  equal  territorial  extent  even 
in  its  narrowest  form  (Fig.  38).  The  industry  of  Syria  at  this 
period  was  allied  to  the  Capsian  of  Africa  and  may  be  regarded 
as  related  to  it.  The  rather  scant  remains  of  the  age  in  Italy 
are  perhaps  also  to  be  allied  with  the  Capsian  culture  rather 
than  with  the  true  Aurignacian.  This  makes  it  look  as  if  at  this 
time  a  great  Lower  Capsian  culture-area  embraced  nearly  all 
the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  As  against  this,  the  mid- 
European  true  Aurignacian,  so  far  as  now  known,  covered  only 
a  narrow  region. 

During  the  Solutrean  and  Magdalenian,  Africa  and  Spain 
were  in  the  Upper  Capsian.  Evidence  from  the  eastern  Medi¬ 
terranean  begins  to  fail.  Italy  is  wholly  without  discovered 
remains.  There  are  indications  (§  240)  that  at  least  by  the 
beginning  of  the  Magdalenian  in  Europe,  the  favored  land  of 
Egypt  had  already  entered  into  the  Neolithic.  If  this  is  so, 
westernmost  Asia,  Greece,  and  even  Italy  may  have  begun  to 
be  affected  by  this  higher  phase  of  culture,  and  the  paucity 
or  absence  of  their  late  Palaeolithic  remains  would  be  accounted 
for.  This  view  seems  reasonable,  but  is  unproved. 

The  Solutrean  seems  to  have  been  a  brief  period  in  western 
Europe,  and  its  extent  appears  limited  also  (Fig.  39).  It  reveals 
two  principal  areas :  one  north  of  the  Danube,  the  other  in 
southern  France.  The  former  may  have  been  the  earlier,  from 
which  the  culture,  or  certain  phases  of  it,  such  as  the  art  of 
even  surface  retouch  on  leaf-shaped  blades,  were  carried  west¬ 
ward  into  France.  In  this  connection  two  facts  may  be  sig¬ 
nificant. 

First  is  the  circumstance  that  the  north  Danubian  Solutrean 
area  possessed  an  art,  apparently  largely  of  Solutrean  age, 
which  is  quite  different  from  the  Upper  Palaeolithic  art  of  the 
west.  Naturalism  was  scarcely  attempted,  figures  were  highly 
conventional,  the  style  was  one  of  concentric  curves  or  stippling 
or  hatching. 

The  second  consideration  is  the  Briinn  race.  This  type,  which 


PREHISTORY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


403 


as  yet  is  known  only  from  a  few  examples  ( §  17 ) ,  is  generally 
considered  Neandertaloid,  but  also  shows  leanings  toward  the 
Cro-Magnon  race  as  well  as  differences  from  it.  The  less  dubious 


Fig.  39.  Solutrean  and  Magdalenian  culture-areas  (about  18,000- 
10,000  B.C.)  S,  areas  of  pronounced  Solutrean  industry.  1  (vertical 
shading),  Magdalenian  culture.  2  A,  2B,  Upper  Capsian,  western  and 
eastern  provinces,  contemporaneous  with  Solutrean  and  Magdalenian. 
(Based  on  Obermayer.) 


Briinn  remains,  those  from  Briinn,  Briix,  and  perhaps  Pred- 
most,  are  all  from  Czecho-Slovakia,  that  is,  the  north  Danubian 
region ;  and  they  seem  to  be  of  Solutrean  age.  These  facts  ren¬ 
der  it  likely  that  there  existed  a  connection  between  the  east 


404 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


Solutrean  culture,  the  geometric  art,  and  the  Briinn  race,  and 
they  indicate  at  least  some  probability  of  the  spread  of  Solutrean 
culture  from  eastern  to  western  Europe.  Briinn  man  may  have 
been  a  modified  Neandertal  man  who  persisted  in  the  east  after 
Cro-Magnon  man  had  become  established  in  the  west  during 
the  Aurignacian.  Or  he  may  have  been  a  local  eastern  variant 
of  a  generic  type  whose  better  known  western  form  we  call  Cro- 
Magnon  man. 

As  to  Grimaldi  man,  his  Negroid  affiliations  also  seem  less 
startling  once  it  is  clear  that  the  Aurignacian  civilization  was 
a  mid-European  phenomenon,  and  that  contemporary  Spain 
and  probably  Italy  formed  part  of  the  essentially  African  de¬ 
velopment  of  the  Lower  Capsian.  With  southern  Europe  a  cul¬ 
tural  annex  of  north  Africa  at  this  period,  the  presence  there 
of  a  Negroid  type  is  reasonable  enough.  Further,  both  the 
strait  of  Gibraltar  and  that  between  Tunis  and  Sicily  were  land 
bridges  during  part  of  the  Pleistocene;  Gibraltar,  for  instance, 
probably  during  the  Lower  Capsian  and,  again,  after  a  sub¬ 
sidence,  in  the  Upper  Capsian.  The  Mediterranean,  in  other 
words,  must  be  conceived  not  as  a  great  barring  sea,  but  as  a 
land-locked  lake  or  pair  of  lakes,  so  that  Europe  and  Africa 
were  joined  geographically  as  well  as  racially  and  cultur¬ 
ally. 

As  to  the  Cro-Magnon  race,  its  association  with  the  Aurigna- 
cian-Magdalenian  culture  of  mid-European  type  is  clear  enough, 
but  its  origin  remains  problematical.  One  naturally  looks  east¬ 
ward  :  to  the  north  lay  ice,  to  the  west  the  Atlantic,  to  the  south 
a  different  even  though  related  culture.  But  nothing  is  really 
known ;  no  ancestral  Asiatic  form,  no  closely  cognate  later  race, 
no  eastern  culture  out  of  which  the  Aurignacian  might  have 
sprung  nor  to  which  it  might  have  been  specifically  related. 
All  or  some  of  these  may  have  existed,  but  in  the  absence  of 
discovery,  speculation  is  of  little  profit.  There  is  the  further 
difficulty  about  a  theory  that  brings  Cro-Magnon  man  out  of 
the  east  into  the  west  of  Europe,  that  a  little  later,  in  the 
Solutrean,  central  Europe,  through  which  he  presumably  passed, 
seems  to  have  been  in  possession  of  the  Briinn  race.  True,  this 
might  have  been  a  later  wave  out  of  the  east ;  but  to  derive  both 
races  out  of  Asia,  and  perhaps  the  preceding  Neandertal  type 


PREHISTORY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


405 


also,  is  a  bit  monotonous  as  a  hypothesis,  besides  being  one  of 
those  assumptions  that  seem  to  answer  problems  without  really 
helping  their  understanding. 

Much  the  same  may  be  said  as  to  the  fate  of  Neandertal  man 
— whether  he  was  exterminated  by  the  Cro-Magnons,  or  absorbed, 
or  was  driven  away,  or  died  out.  A  single  discovery  on  this 
point  will  be  worth  more  than  the  most  elaborate  conjecture. 

Two  points  seem  clear,  whatever  may  have  been  the  diffusions 
of  race  and  culture  at  the  time  that  the  Lower  Palaeolithic  was 
being  replaced  by  the  Upper.  On  the  side  of  flint  industry, 
there  was  no  break:  the  Aurignacian  is  the  continuation  of  the 
Mousterian.  The  experts  occasionally  have  difficulty  in  agree¬ 
ing  whether  a  station  or  level  is  to  be  assigned  to  the  late  Mous¬ 
terian  or  early  Aurignacian.  Whatever,  therefore,  was  imported 
in  the  Upper  Palaeolithic  was  joined  to  something  that  remained 
over  and  continued  in  middle  Europe  from  the  Lower  Palaeo¬ 
lithic.  Secondly,  the  center  of  known  naturalistic  art  develop¬ 
ment  was  the  west,  southern  France  especially;  perceptibly  in 
the  Aurignacian,  notably  in  the  Magdalenian.  Yet  this  tract 
is  peripheral  to  the  Aurignacian-Magdalenian  culture  as  a 
whole.  It  would  thus  be  a  forced  explanation  to  look  upon  this 
art  as  the  outright  result  of  a  diffusion  or  migration :  the  sup¬ 
posed  recipients  of  the  accomplishment  would  be  carrying  it 
farther  than  its  originators.  In  other  words,  Upper  Palaeolithic 
art  was  in  the  main  a  growth  on  the  soil  of  western  Europe,  so 
far  as  present  evidence  indicates.  These  findings  diminish  the 
probability  of  any  large  scale  importation  of  Upper  Palaeolithic 
culture  ready  made  as  a  by-product  of  the  irruption  of  a  new 
race.  The  change  from  Lower  to  Upper  Palaeolithic  was  indeed 
profoundly  significant.  But  much  of  it  may  have  been  con¬ 
summated  by  a  gradual  evolution  within  western  and  central 
Europe. 

It  is  worth  observing  that  the  Lower  Palaeolithic  of  Europe 
with  all  its  fundamental  unity  of  culture  stretched  through 
different  climates.  The  Chellean  was  at  least  in  part  sub¬ 
tropical,  the  Acheulean  a  time  of  cooling  steppe  climate,  the 
Mousterian  the  period  of  maximum  glaciation.  The  Upper 
Palaeolithic  again  has  its  transition  from  the  close  of  the  Wiirm 
glaciation  to  the  present  temperature  of  Europe  broken  by  three 


406 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


temporary  advances  of  the  ice,  known  as  they  occurred  in  the 
Alps  as  the  Buhl,  Gschnitz,  and  Daun  phases.  The  following 
correlation  of  climatic  and  cultural  periods  has  been  suggested : 
Aurignacian,  close  of  the  last  glacial  and  beginning  of  the 
post-glacial;  Solutrean,  first  maximum  of  ice  recession  ( Achen - 
schwankung)  ;  Magdalenian,  Buhl  advance,  second  recession, 
and  Gschnitz  advance,  corresponding  respectively  to  the  early, 
middle,  and  late  stages  of  the  period.  To  these  might  he  added 
that  the  Azilian  came  at  about  the  third  recession  and  brief 
final  Daun  advance ;  the  Neolithic,  with  the  final  recession  of 
ice  and  appearance  of  modern  conditions.  It  is  clear  that  cli¬ 
matic  circumstances  were  not  the  chief  determining  factor  in 
the  cultural  development  of  early  Europe.  Had  they  been  such, 
the  Chellean  would  have  differed  culturally  more  from  the 
Mousterian  than  this  from  the  Aurignacian. 

Southern  Europe  and  North  Africa  were  not  glaciated  in  the 
Pleistocene.  Heavier  rainfall,  perhaps  accompanied  by  foresta¬ 
tion,  are  likely  to  have  taken  the  place  of  the  ice,  whereas 
a  change  from  forest  to  steppe,  or  steppe  to  desert,  corresponded 
to  the  recession  of  the  ice  in  Alpine  and  northern  Europe.  For 
more  distant  regions,  such  as  India  and  south  Africa,  the  cli¬ 
matic  correlations  with  Europe  become  dubious ;  which  is  one  of 
the  reasons  why  as  yet  no  sure  linking  in  time  can  be  effected 
between  their  Palaeolithic  culture  and  that  of  Europe. 

216.  The  Palaeolithic  Aftermath:  Azilian 

After  the  Magdalenian,  there  follows  in  western  Europe  the 
Azilian,  or  Azylian,  named  after  Mas  d’Azil  in  the  French 
Pyrenees.  It  has  also  been  called  Tourassian.  This  was  the 
period  in  which  the  reindeer  died  out,  being  replaced  by  the 
deer.  Plarpoons  were  accordingly  made  of  deer  horn  instead 
of  reindeer  antler,  the  spongier  texture  of  the  interior  of  the 
material  necessitating  a  coarser  and  broader  form.  Perfora¬ 
tions  to  hold  the  harpoon  line  now  began  to  be  regularly  pro¬ 
vided.  Bone  implements  were  fewer,  chiefly  awls  or  simple  dart 
heads.  Stone  implements  became  less  important.  The  best  made 
flint  forms  were  minute  points  or  blades  of  geometric  form,  often 
trapezoidal.  These  are  the  microlitlis,  obviously  intended,  in  the 


PREHISTORY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


407 


main,  for  insertion  in  wood,  sometimes  perhaps  in  sawlike  rows. 
The  great  naturalistic  Magdalenian  art  was  dead  in  the  Azilian. 
Its  place  was  taken  by  simple  conventional  designs  painted  on 
pebbles,  sometimes  curiously  suggestive  of  alphabetic  symbols, 
although  it  is  unthinkable  that  they  could  at  this  early  time, 
and  among  so  backward  a  people  as  these  deer  hunters,  have 
served  any  purpose  of  writing.  The  puzzling  designs  are  more 
likely  to  have  been  used  in  magic  or  religion. 

The  period  of  the  Azilian  was  perhaps  10,000-8000  B.C.  The 
climate  was  approaching  that  of  to-day,  though  still  cooler.  The 
area  of  the  Azilian  proper  was  limited  to  the  Pyrenean  environs 
of  southern  France  and  northern  Spain.  Related  and  contem¬ 
porary  cultures  can  however  be  traced  much  farther;  and  the 
name  Azilian  in  a  larger  sense  may  justifiably  be  applied  to 
these  also.  The  greater  part  of  Spain  and  Portugal  and  north 
Africa  were  at  this  time  in  the  Terminal  Capsian.  This  was  a 
local  phase  lacking  the  deer  horn  harpoons  and  painted  pebbles 
of  the  Pyrenees,  but  with  the  microlithic  flint  industry  espe¬ 
cially  conspicuous.  In  fact  it  is  in  Africa  that  the  development 
of  the  extreme  microlithic  forms  out  of  their  antecedents,  the 
reduced  implements  of  the  Upper  Capsian,  has  been  most  clearly 
traced.  In  Europe  the  Azilian  forms  do  not  connect  nearly  so 
closely  with  the  preceding  Magdalenian.  It  looks  therefore  as 
if  the  culture  of  western  Europe  in  this  period  were  based  to 
a  considerable  extent  on  traits  evolved  in  Africa,  to  which 
various  additions  were  made  locally,  like  the  pebble-painting 
in  the  Pyrenean  area.  This  preponderance  of  African  influ¬ 
ences  is  corroborated  by  the  occurrence  in  Syria  and  southern 
Italy  of  small  flints  allied  to  the  Terminal  Capsian  ones.  The 
same  may  be  said  of  a  culture  phase  of  northern  France,  the 
Tardenoisian,  which  extended  also  to  Belgium  and  England — 
which  latter  seems  not  to  have  become  finally  separated  from  the 
continent  until  about  this  era.  The  Tardenoisian  is  specifically 
characterized  by  microliths  almost  indistinguishable  from  the 
north  African  ones,  but  lacks  the  other  traits  of  the  south  French 
Azilian.  It  may  also  have  persisted  longer,  into  the  period 
which  in  the  south  was  already  early  Neolithic.  Approximately 
contemporary  and  related  is  also  the  south  German  culture  rep¬ 
resented  at  Ofnet,  famous  for  its  nests  of  skulls  from  decapi- 


408 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


tated  bodies ;  and  that  in  southern  Scandinavia  called  Maglemose 
(§  233).  In  Scotland  and  northern  England,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  harpoon  head  is  once  more  to  the  fore,  perhaps  because  here 
as  in  the  Pyrenean  area  forested  mountains  and  the  sea  were 
in  juxtaposition  and  deer  and  salmon  could  both  be  taken  abun¬ 
dantly.  The  food  habits  of  sub-arid  and  arid  north  Africa  must 
have  been  quite  different;  in  fact  it  is  evident  that  snails  were 
seasonally  consumed  here  in  large  quantities. 

All  these  local  phases  interrelate  and  may  be  grouped  together 
as  Azilian  as  designative  of  the  period  and  generic  culture. 
The  map  (Pig.  40)  shows  the  extent  to  which  the  manifesta¬ 
tions  of  this  culture  stage  have  been  traced.  They  may  prove 
to  extend  farther. 

Spain,  at  the  close  of  the  Paheolithic,  possessed  art  of  three 
types.  In  the  north,  Magdalenian  realism  flourished  as  vigor¬ 
ously  as  in  neighboring  southern  France.  The  paintings  of  the 
cave  of  Altamira,  for  instance,  are  no  less  numerous  and  superb 
than  those  of  Font-de-Gaume.  Second,  in  the  south,  there  pre¬ 
vailed  a  conventional  style.  Men  and  animals  are  still  recog¬ 
nizable,  but  schematically  drawn,  and  among  them  are  picto- 
graphic  symbols.  Third,  in  eastern  Spain,  a  cliff  art  was  realistic 
in  purpose,  but  crude  in  execution.  One  can  see  without  diffi¬ 
culty  what  the  figures  are  doing,  but  the  proportions  are  dis¬ 
torted,  and  the  fresh,  vivid,  sure  spirit  of  Magdalenian  painting 
is  wholly  lacking.  The  figures  represent  people  more  often  than 
animals :  gatherings,  dances,  long-gowned  women,  men  with 
bows.  This  is  the  earliest  direct  or  indirect  record  of  the  bow 
and  arrow.  It  dates  from  the  final  phase  of  the  Palaeolithic,  and 
the  weapon  may  not  have  become  employed  throughout  Europe 
until  the  Neolithic  was  definitely  under  way. 

It  is  well  to  remember  in  this  connection  that  no  specific  type 
of  culture,  no  matter  how  old,  is  likely  ever  to  have  existed 
without  variation  over  a  whole  hemisphere  or  continent.  The 
later  any  type  is,  the  greater  is  the  probability  that  it  has  had 
sufficient  time  for  specific  characterization  to  enable  it  to  be 
distinguished  readily  from  the  contemporary  cultures  of  other 
areas.  The  local  provinces  or  culture-areas  of  the  Palaeolithic 
foreshadow  the  deeper  regional  differentiations  of  the  Neolithic, 
Bronze,  and  Iron  Ages. 


PREHISTORY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY  409 

There  is  some  variation  of  usage  as  to  whether  the  Azilian 
is  assignable  to  the  Palaeolithic  or  Neolithic.  Some  include  it 
with  the  earliest  Neolithic  phases  to  constitute  a  Mesolithic  or 
Middle  Stone  Age.  The  era  has  also  been  designated  Epi- 


Fig.  40.  Phases  of  the  close  of  the  Palaeolithic  (about  10,000-8,000 
B.C.).  A ,  Azilian  proper;  C,  Terminal  Capsian;  M,  Maglemose;  O , 
Of  net,  Bavaria;  S ,  Scotch  and  north  English  Azilian;  T,  Tardenoisian. 

Palaeolithic  and  Proto-Neolithic.  The  concept  of  a  separate 
Mesolithic  period  becomes-  important  in  the  degree  that  the 
original  definition  of  the  Neolithic  as  limited  to  the  age  of 
polished  stone  remains  rigorously  adhered  to.  With  the  Neo¬ 
lithic  conceived  more  broadly,  as  discussed  in  the  following  sec- 


410 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


tion,  a  separate  Mesolithic  becomes  unnecessary,  and  the  Azilian 
takes  its  place  as  a  final  Palaeolithic  episode  of  mixed  African 
and  local  developments  after  the  passing  of  the  characteristic 
European  Upper  Palaeolithic. 

217.  The  Neolithic:  Its  Early  Phase 

The  Neolithic  is  by  original  definition  the  age  of  polished 
stone  as  opposed  to  the  fracturing  of  stone  in  the  Palaeolithic. 
In  a  sense,  this  definition  is  a  true  one,  at  any  rate  for  Europe 
and  the  Near  East.  There  is  no  stone  grinding  in  the  Palaeo¬ 
lithic  and  there  is  in  the  Neolithic.  But  since  the  two  stone 
ages  were  first  discriminated  fifty  or  more  years  ago,  a  vast  body 
of  knowledge  has  accumulated  about  them,  with  the  result  that 
the  original  criterion  has  become  only  an  approximate  one.  The 
definition  of  the  Neolithic  as  the  age  of  ground  stone  is  at  the 
present  time  so  over-elementary  as  to  have  become  inaccurate. 
A  long  initial  phase  of  this  age  did  not  yet  grind  stone,  but  con¬ 
tinued  to  use  tools  made  by  the  Palaeolithic  process  of  chipping. 
It  was  not  until  the  latter  part  of  the  New  Stone  Age  was 
reached,  what  we  may  call  the  Pull  Neolithic,  that  the  grinding 
and  polishing  of  stone  were  attempted. 

What,  then,  it  is  natural  to  ask,  makes  the  Early  Neolithic 
Age  really  Neolithic — what  in  fact  separates  it  from  the  Palaeo¬ 
lithic?  It  is  a  cluster  of  traits;  a  cluster  that  grew  as  the  Neo¬ 
lithic  progressed;  but  every  one  of  whose  constituents  was  lack¬ 
ing  from  the  Old  Stone  Age. 

218.  Pottery  and  the  Bow 

Outstanding  in  this  cluster  of  cultural  traits  that  mark  the 
Neolithic  is  pottery.  Wherever,  in  Europe  and  the  Near  East  at 
least,  there  is  universal  agreement  that  a  stage  of  development 
was  Neolithic,  pottery  is  present.  And  conversely,  wherever 
pottery  occurs,  no  one  has  yet  doubted  that  a  true  Neolithic 
stage  existed.  The  earliest  potteryless  phases,  such  as  that  of 
Maglemose,  which  have  sometimes  been  designated  as  Proto- 
Neolithic,  sometimes  as  Mesolithic,  can  advantageously  be  con¬ 
sidered  terminal  Palaeolithic. 


PREHISTORY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


411 


Second  in  importance  is  the  bow,  which  in  general  appeared 
contemporaneously  with  pottery  The  evidence  for  its  existence 
is  sometimes  less  clear.  Pottery  is  imperishable  and  unmistak¬ 
able.  The  bow  and  arrow,  on  the  other  hand,  are  made  of  mate¬ 
rials  that  decay  in  a  few  years,  under  ordinary  conditions.  Only 
the  stone  or  bone  point  preserves,  and  this  cannot  always  be 
distinguished  with  positiveness  from  the  head  of  a  light  spear 
or  even  from  a  small  knife  blade.  There  was  a  time,  for  in¬ 
stance,  when  the  smaller  flint  blades  of  the  Solutrean  were  often 
regarded  as  arrow  points,  whereas  now  the  tendency,  based  on 
more  intensive  comparisons,  is  to  deny  the  bow  and  arrow  to  the 
Magdalenian  as  well  as  the  Solutrean.  Certainly  the  harpoon 
and  its  thrower  are  so  numerous  and  indubitable  in  the  Mag¬ 
dalenian  that  there  would  be  reason  to  expect  an  important 
weapon  like  the  bow  to  have  left  at  least  some  sure  traces :  a 
definitive  type  of  recognizable  arrow  head  would  have  been 
wTorked  out.  But  such  is  not  the  case. 

These  two  culture  elements,  pottery  and  the  bow,  signalized 
an  enormous  advance  over  the  past.  Both  required  definite 
technical  skill  to  manufacture.  And  both  were  of  the  greatest 
service.  Whole  lines  of  foods  could  now  be  utilized  that  had 
formerly  been  passed  by :  soups,  stews,  porridges.  Plants  whose 
seeds  or  parts  before  were  inedible,  or  almost  so,  were  added  to 
the  diet  as  soon  as  they  could  be  boiled.  The  bow  made  possible 
long  range  fighting,  the  free  pursuit  of  large  game,  and  the 
capture  of  many  small  mammals  and  birds  which  previously  it 
must  have  been  difficult  to  take.  The  harpoon  was  developed 
chiefly  for  fishing.  It  would  be  of  little  help  in  killing  birds, 
rabbits,  and  the  like,  or  large  and  dangerous  animals  like  wild 
cattle. 


219.  Bone  Tools 

Hand  in  hand  with  the  invention  or  rather  introduction  of 
the  bow  and  pottery — it  seems  doubtful  whether  they  were  de¬ 
vised  in  Europe — went  an  increased  employment  of  bone  and 
horn  tools  at  the  expense  of  stone.  This  drift  had  already  begun 
in  the  Upper  Palaeolithic ;  in  fact,  is  one  of  the  signs  that  mark 
it  off  from  the  Lower  Palaeolithic.  It  became  accentuated  as 


412 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


the  Upper  Paleolithic  wore  on,  still  more  prominent  in  its 
closing  Azilian  phase1 — hence  the  increasing  minuteness  of 
flint  blades — and  continued  into  the  early  Neolithic.  A  good 
working  chisel,  wedge,  awl,  or  needle,  for  instance,  must  be 
smooth.  This  finish  is  difficult  in  chipped  stone,  but  easily 
attained  in  bone  or  horn  by  rubbing.  It  was  not  therefore  until 
stone  grinding  came  into  use  in  the  later  Neolithic,  that  bone 
and  horn  began  to  fall  in  significance  as  materials.  But  they 
had  performed  their  service.  It  is  unlikely  that  stone  polishing 
would  have  been  attempted  but  for  the  experience  and  long 
habits  of  the  polishing  process  as  acquired  in  dealing  with  the 
softer  materials. 


220.  The  Dog 

The  first  animal  was  also  domesticated  about  the  beginning 
of  the  Neolithic.  Dog  remains  have  been  found  in  two  very  late 
post-Magdalenian  Palaeolithic  sites,  one  in  Scotland,  the  other 
in  Denmark,  both  apparently  Azilian  in  age.  Then,  the  Danish 
kitchenmiddens,  which  began  in  the  first  stage  of  the  Early 
Neolithic,  contain  innumerable  bones  that  have  been  gnawed 
by  dogs.  The  animals  may  still  have  been  half  wild  at  this 
period,  since  their  own  skeletons  are  rare  in  the  middens.  Evi¬ 
dently  the  species  was  not  yet  firmly  attached  to  man ;  its  mem¬ 
bers  went  off  to  die  in  solitude.  This  is  what  has  generally 
been  predicated  on  hypothetical  grounds  of  the  history  of  dog 
and  man.  Contrary  to  most  domesticated  animals,  the  dog  is 
thought  not  to  have  been  captured  and  tamed  outright,  but  to 
have  attached  himself  to  human  beings  as  a  parasitic  hanger-on, 
a  shy,  tolerated,  uncared-for  scavenger,  living  in  a  stage  of  sym¬ 
biotic  relationship  with  our  ancestors  before  his  real  domestica¬ 
tion.  This  view  the  prehistoric  evidence  seems  to  confirm. 

1  These  are  the  proportions  of  implements  of  flint  to  those  of  bone  or 


horn  in  several  stations  of  different  age: 

Hundsteig,  Austria,  early  Aurignacian  .  20,000  2 

Sirgenstein,  Wiirtemberg,  Aurignacian .  1,000  rare 

Sirgenstein,  Wiirtemberg,  early  Solutrean .  700  10 

Predmost,  Czecho-Slovakia,  Solutrean  .  25,000  many 

Schweizersbild,  Switzerland,  late  Magdalenian .  14,000  1,300 

Maglemose,  Denmark,  Azilian  .  881  294 

Oban,  Scotland,  Azilian . 20  150 


PREHISTORY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


413 


221.  The  Hewn  Ax 

One  more  trait  signalizes  the  Early  Neolithic :  the  hewn  stone 
ax.  This  was  a  chipped  implement,  straight  or  slightly  convex 
along  the  cutting  edge,  tapering  from  that  to  the  butt,  about 
twice  as  long  as  broad,  rather  thick,  unperforated  and  un¬ 
grooved ;  in  fact  perhaps  often  unhandled  and  driven  by  blows 
upon  the  butt:  a  sharp  stone  wedge  as  much  as  an  ax,  in  short. 
The  whole  Palaeolithic  shows  no  such  implement :  even  the 
Azilian  has  only  bone  or  horn  “axes.” 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  repeat  for  the  Neolithic  what  has 
already  been  said  of  the  Palaeolithic  periods :  the  older  types, 
such  as  chipped  flint  tools,  continued  very  generally  to  he  made. 
Such  persistence  is  natural :  a  survival  of  a  low  type  among 
higher  ones  does  not  mean  much.  It  is  the  appearance  of  new 
and  superior  inventions  that  counts. 

The  Early  Neolithic  can  be  summed  up,  then,  in  these  five 
traits :  pottery ;  the  bow  and  arrow ;  abundant  use  of  bone  and 
horn;  the  dog;  and  the  hewn  ax. 

222.  The  Full  Neolithic 

It  is  the  later  or  Full  Neolithic,  beginning  probably  between 
6000  and  5000  B.C.  in  western  Europe,  that  is  marked  by  the 
grinding  or  polishing  of  stone.  Even  this  criterion  is  less  deep¬ 
going  than  might  be  thought  from  all  the  references  that  pre¬ 
historians  have  made  to  it,  since  the  new  process  was  put  to 
limited  service.  Practically  the  only  stone  implements  that  were 
ground  into  shape  in  Europe  were  of  the  ax  class:  the  ax  head 
itself,  the  celt  or  chisel,  hammer  stones,  and  clubheads.  The 
mill  is  the  principal  artifact  that  can  be  added  to  the  list.  The 
ax  long  remained  what  we  to-day  should  scarcely  dignify  with 
the  name  of  ax  head :  an  unpierced,  ungrooved  blade.  It  is  only 
toward  the  end  of  the  Neolithic  in  Europe,  after  metal  was 
already  in  use  in  the  Orient  and  Mediterranean  countries,  that 
perforated  and  well  ground  stone  axes  appear ;  many  of  these 
make  the  impression  of  being  stone  imitations,  among  a  remote, 
backward  people,  of  forms  cast  in  bronze  by  the  richer  and  more 
advanced  nations  of  the  South  and  East. 


414 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


Much  more  important  than  the  ground  stone  ax  in  its  influence 
on  life  was  the  commencement,  during  the  Neolithic,  of  two  of 
the  great  fundamentals  of  our  own  modern  civilization :  agricul¬ 
ture  and  domestic  animals.  These  freed  men  from  the  bufferings 
of  nature ;  made  possible  permanent  habitation,  the  accumula¬ 
tion  of  food  and  wealth,  and  a  heavier  growth  of  population. 
Also,  agriculture  and  animal  breeding  were  evidently  introduced 
only  after  numbers  had  reached  a  certain  density.  A  sparse 
population,  being  able  to  subsist  on  wild  products,  tends  to  re¬ 
main  content  with  them.  A  fertile  area  with  mild  winters  may 
support  as  high  as  one  soul  per  square  mile  without  improve¬ 
ment  of  the  natural  resources ;  in  large  forests,  steppes,  cold 
climates,  and  arid  tracts,  the  territory  needed  for  the  subsistence 
of  each  head  becomes  larger  in  a  hunting  stage  of  existence. 

The  cultivated  food  plants  of  the  European  Neolithic  were 
barley,  wheat,  and  millet,  pease,  lentils,  and  somewhat  later, 
beans  and  apples.  All  of  these  seem  to  derive  from  Mediter¬ 
ranean  or  west  Asiatic  sources.  Of  non-edible  plants  there  was 
flax,  which  served  textile  purposes  and  involved  loom  weaving. 

The  species  of  domesticated  animals  numbered  four,  besides 
the  dog:  cattle,  swine,  sheep,  and  goats.  The  horse,1  cat,  hen, 
duck,  came  into  Europe  during  the  metal  ages,  in  part  during 
the  historic  period. 

223.  Origin  of  Domesticated  Animals  and  Plants 

The  place  of  first  domestication  of  the  four  oldest  species  is 
not  known  surely.  Most  of  them  had  wild  representatives  in 
Europe  long  before  and  after  the  domesticated  forms  appear, 
but  the  same  was  true  in  western  Asia  and  Egypt,  and  the  gen¬ 
eral  priority  of  these  tracts  in  metal  working  and  other  cultural 
achievements  makes  it  likely  that  their  inhabitants  were  also 
the  first  to  tame  the  animals  in  question.  The  subject  is  as 
intricate  as  it  is  interesting,  because  of  difficulty  which  biolo¬ 
gists  experience  in  tracing  the  modified  tame  forms  back  to  the 
wild  species  with  certainty.  The  mere  fact  of  continued  domes- 

1  The  horse  seems  to  have  survived  wild  in  parts  of  Europe  until  the 
Neolithic,  but  the  first  domesticated  forms,  in  the  Bronze  Age,  appear  to 
have  been  brought  in  from  Asia, 


PREHISTORY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


415 


tication,  even  without  conscious  selection  in  breeding,  often  alters 
a  species  more  from  what  may  have  been  its  old  wild  form  than 
this  differs  from  another  wild  species. 

It  is  however  clear  from  the  unusually  abundant  and  well 
preserved  Lake-dwelling  remains  of  Switzerland  that  the  earliest 
known  domestic  animals  of  this  region  were  considerably  dif¬ 
ferent  from  the  nearest  native  species.  The  wild  bull  or  urus 
of  Europe,  Bos  primigenius,  was  large  and  long-horned.  His 
bones  in  the  oldest  lake  dwellings  seem  to  come  from  wild  indi¬ 
viduals  that  had  been  hunted.  Alongside  are  the  remains  of  the 
domesticated  Bos  bracliyceros,  a  short-liornecl  form,  small  and 
delicately  built.  Later,  though  still  in  the  Neolithic,  long-horned 
tame  cattle  appear  in  the  lake  dwellings.  Apparently  the  short¬ 
horns  had  first  been  imported  from  the  south ;  then  the  native 
urus  was  tamed;  finally,  the  two  strains  were  crossed.  These 
strains  are  thought  to  survive  in  our  modern  cattle,  those  of 
eastern  and  central  Europe  being  prevailingly  of  the  primi¬ 
genius,  of  western  Europe  of  the  bracliyceros  type. 

A  similar  story  applies  to  the  pig.  The  first  domesticated 
swine  of  Switzerland  were  small,  long-legged,  and  easily  dis¬ 
tinguishable  from  the  wild  boar  of  the  region.  It  thus  isNikely 
that  they  were  imported  domesticated.  In  the  Bronze  Age, 
pigs  grew  larger,  due  perhaps  to  crossing  with  the  w-ild  species. 
Sheep  were  certainly  brought  into  Europe,  as  there  is  no  cor¬ 
responding  wild  form ;  the  goats,  too,  have  their  nearest  rela¬ 
tives  in  Asia.  They  were  perhaps  tamed  before  sheep.  At  any 
rate,  goats  prevailed  in  the  earlier  lake  dwellings,  whereas  later, 
sheep  outnumbered  them. 

Similar  arguments  apply  to  the  origin  of  the  cultivated  plants 
in  Europe.  For  some  of  these,  such  as  wheat,  wild  relatives — 
possible  ancestors — are  known  from  Asia,  but  not  from  Europe. 
Also  there  has  been  such  a  drift  of  later  cultivated  plants — - 
legumes,  greens,  and  fruits — from  Asia  and  the  Mediterranean 
into  Europe  during  the  Bronze  and  Iron  Ages,  as  to  render  it 
probable  that  the  earliest  flow  was  in  the  same  direction.  The 
instances  of  diffusion  from  north  to  south  are  few :  oats,  rye,  and 
hemp  are  perhaps  the  principal.  These  plants,  however,  wrere 
carried  southward  slowly  and  accepted  reluctantly,  whereas  the 
northerners  were  in  general  avid  of  any  southern  or  Oriental 


416 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


form  wliich  would  bear  their  climate,  as  the  progressive  spread 
and  increased  use  of  new  forms  shows.  Furthermore,  even  oats, 
rye,  and  hemp  appear  to  be  Asiatic  in  origin,  and  thus  to  have 
entered  Europe  merely  from  the  east,  instead  of  southeast. 

224.  Other  Traits  of  the  Full  Neolithic 

The  earliest  animals  were  kept  for  their  flesh  and  hides.  Two 
or  three  thousand  years  passed  before  cattle  were  used  before 
the  plow  or  to  draw  wagons.  Both  the  plow  and  the  wheel  were 
unknown  in  Europe  until  well  in  the  Bronze  Age,  after  they 
had  been  established  for  some  time  in  Asia.  Still  later  was  the 
use  of  milk.  Here  again  Asia  and  Egypt  have  precedence. 

Many  other  elements  of  culture  appear  in  the  Full  Neolithic. 
Houses  were  dug  into  the  ground  and  roofed  over  with  timbers 
and  earth.  The  dead  were  buried  in  enduring  chambers  of 
stone:  “dolmens,”  often  put  together  out  of  enormous  slabs;  or 
excavations  in  soft  bed  rock.  Upright  pillars  of  undressed  stone 
were  erected — either  singly  as  “menhirs”  or  in  “alignments” 
— in  connection  with  religious  or  funerary  worship.  Pottery 
was  ornamented  in  a  variety  of  geometric  decorative  styles, 
usually  incised  rather  than  painted;  their  sequences  and  con¬ 
temporary  distributions  in  several  areas  are  gradually  being  de¬ 
termined. 

225.  The  Bronze  Age:  Copper  and  Bronze  Phases 

There  is  no  abrupt  break  between  the  Neolithic  and  the  Bronze 
Age.  Metal  was  at  first  too  rare,  too  difficult  to  mine  and  smelt 
and  work,  to  be  used  extensively.  It  served  for  special  weapons, 
tools,  and  ornaments  of  the  wealthy.  The  life  of  the  mass  of  the 
population  went  on  in  much  the  old  channels  for  generations 
or  centuries  after  the  new  material  had  become  known.  This 
was  true  especially  of  peoples  in  oreless  regions,  or  too  backward 
to  have  learned  the  art  of  metal  working.  To  such  nations, 
the  first  bronze  came  as  an  imported  rarity,  to  be  guarded  as  a 
treasure  or  heirloom. 

Of  even  less  immediate  effect  than  the  discovery  of  bronze,  was 
that  of  the  first  metals  known,  copper  and  gold.  The  latter  is 


PREHISTORY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


417 


of  course  too  scarce  and  too  soft  to  serve  for  anything  but  orna¬ 
ments;  and  pure  copper  also,  even  when  hardened  by  hammer¬ 
ing,  is  of  little  use  for  many  mechanical  purposes.  It  makes  a 
fairly  efficient  dagger,  a  rather  mediocre  ax,  and  a  poor  knife. 
The  result  was  that  a  recognizable  period  of  copper  preceded 
the  true  Bronze  Age,  yet  that  it  was  essentially  a  last  phase 
of  the  New  Stone  Age,  with  the  metal  creeping  in  as  something 
subsidiary.  In  Italy  and  Spain  it  has  therefore  become  custo¬ 
mary  among  archgeologists  to  speak  of  an  “Eneolitliic”  period 
as  a  transition  stage  in  which  some  copper,  and  occasionally 
bronze  of  low  tin  content,  occur.  In  central  and  northern  Eu¬ 
rope,  the  equivalent  stage  falls  somewhat  later  and  is  sometimes 
called  the  Stone-Bronze  period. 

Bronze  is  an  alloy  of  tin  with  copper,  harder  than  the  latter, 
easier  to  melt,  and  casting  better.  In  many  properties  it  re¬ 
sembles  brass,  by  which  term  it  is  referred  to  in  the  English 
Bible ;  but  must  not  be  confounded  with  it.  Brass  is  an  alloy 
of  zinc  with  copper,  of  much  later  discovery,  apparently  in  Asia, 
and  until  recent  centuries  little  used  in  Europe.  As  regards 
bronze,  even  a  two  per  cent  addition  of  tin  to  copper  results  in 
a  perceptible  hardening;  and  five  to  ten  per  cent  produce  a 
greatly  superior  tool  metal. 

The  origin  of  bronze  is  a  problem  of  some  difficulty,  because 
the  earliest  known  users  of  bronze,  the  peoples  of  the  Near  East, 
possessed  little  or  no  tin.  There  are  said  to  have  been  tin  sup¬ 
plies  in  the  Khorasan  district  of  Persia,  which  might  have  been 
drawn  upon  by  the  pre-Babylonians  and  thence  carried  to  Egypt. 
The  chief  source  of  the  tin  of  later  antiquity  was  Spain  and 
England.  But  at  the  outset  of  the  Bronze  Age,  the  Orientals 
did  not  even  know  of  the  existence  of  these  countries,  while  their 
natives,  still  ignorant  of  copper,  could  not  have  mined  tin  for 
the  purpose  of  hardening  that  basic  metal. 

Just  how,  then,  bronze  was  discovered,  is  still  unknown ;  but 
it  must  have  been  in  Western  Asia  not  later  than  the  fourth 
inillenium  B.C.  Before  3000  B.C.,  in  the  period  of  the  first 
dynasties  ruling  over  united  Egypt,  the  art  had  been  established 
in  that  country,  since  bronzes  low  in  percentage  of  tin  have  been 
discovered  from  that  era.  While  ancient  Egypt  mined  its  own 
copper  in  the  adjacent  Sinai  peninsula,  it  is  barren  of  tin  re- 


418  ANTHROPOLOGY 

sources,  so  that  the  latter  metal  must  have  been  imported. 
Within  a  few  centuries,  bronze  began  to  be  used  in  Crete  and 
Troy,  and  by  2500  B.C.  in  Italy  and  Spain,  whereas  it  did  not 
penetrate  central  and  northern  Europe  until  about  1900  B.C., 
according  to  the  usual  estimates.  That  the  use  of  bronze  over 
these  widespread  areas  is  a  connected  phenomenon,  a  case  of 
single  origin  and  diffusion,  is  clear  from  the  manner  in  which 
the  art  spread  from  its  center  of  invention  like  a  wave  which 
arrived  later  the  farther  it  had  to  travel.  The  spread  is  con¬ 
firmed  by  the  fact  that  certain  implement  forms  such  as  early 
triangular  daggers  and  later  swords  traveled  with  the  mate¬ 
rial.  Had  the  western  natives  discovered  bronze  for  themselves, 
they  would  have  cast  it  into  shapes  peculiar  to  themselves,  in¬ 
stead  of  adopting  those  long  established  among  the  Orientals. 

226.  Traits  Associated  with  Bronze 

About  coincident  with  bronze  there  developed  in  Egypt  and 
Babylonia  a  flood  of  new  arts  and  inventions :  writing ;  sun¬ 
burned  brick;  stone  masonry;  sculpture  and  architecture;  the 
arch;  the  plow  and  later  the  chariot;  the  potter’s  wheel,  which 
turns  clay  vessels  with  mechanical  roundness ;  astronomical 
records  and  accurate  calendars;  an  enhanced  cult  of  the  dead 
and  greater  monuments  for  them.  Many  of  these  elements  were 
carried  into  westernmost  Asia  and  the  iEgean  Islands ;  not  so 
many  to  Italy ;  fewer  still  to  Spain  and  France ;  and  a  minimum 
to  central  and  northern  Europe.  But  it  would  be  an  error  to 
infer  from  the  continued  backwardness  of  the  northern  peoples 
that  they  were  wholly  passive  and  recipient.  In  their  simpler, 
more  barbaric  way,  they  remodeled  much  of  what  they  had 
carried  to  them,  altered  the  form,  decorated  it  in  their  own  style, 
made  much  of  some  item  which  filled  but  an  insignificant  place 
in  the  more  complex  civilization  of  the  southeast.  The  fibula 
or  safety-pin,  for  instance,  was  seized  upon  with  avidity  by  the 
central  and  north  European  nations,  made  ornate  and  tremen¬ 
dously  enlarged,  until  it  sometimes  measured  half  a  foot  in 
length  and  more  than  half  a  pound  in  weight  with  spiral  whorls, 
bosses,  pin  clasps,  or  attached  rings  as  big  as  a  palm.  The  Baltic 
nations,  the  farthest  reached  by  this  diffusion,  in  particular 


PREHISTORY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


419 


threw  themselves  into  the  development  of  the  fibula  with  zest, 
success,  and  a  large  measure  of  decorative  taste. 

Even  longer  is  the  history  of  the  sword.  This  has  two  lines 
of  historic  development.  The  one-edged  sword  or  saber  tends 
to  curvature  and  is  essentially  a  hewing  weapon,  not  intended 
for  thrusting,  or  only  secondarily  so  adapted.  This  form  is  first 
known  in  western  Asia,  is  apparently  of  Asiatic  origin,  and  is 
the  direct  ancestor  of  the  Saracen  and  Indian  scimitar,  the 
Malayan  kris  and  barong,  the  Japanese  samurai’s  sword.  The 
two-edged  sword  with  point  has  at  all  times — until  after  the 
introduction  of  firearms — been  the  prevailing  form  in  Europe. 
Its  ancestor  is  the  Egyptian  bronze  dagger,  which  in  turn  is 
probably  derived  from  a  copper  and  ultimately  a  flint  blade  of 
dagger  length.  The  Egyptian  dagger  never  grew  to  more  than 
half-sword  length,  but  the  type  was  early  carried  to  Crete  and 
Italy  and  Spain.  By  2500-2000  B.C.  the  latter  countries  were 
using  triangular  wide-bladed  daggers  of  copper  and  bronze, 
with  a  basal  breadth  not  much  less  than  the  length.  The  handle 
was  a  separate  piece,  riveted  on.  Gradually  the  length  grew 
greater,  the  breadth  less,  the  edges  more  nearly  parallel,  the 
point  sharper;  the  half-sword  and  then  the  sword  evolved  out 
of  the  dagger.  The  handle,  or  its  spike,  came  to  be  cast  with 
the  blade.  These  drawn-out  forms  traveling  to  central  and 
northern  Europe,  were  made  there  of  greater  and  greater  length, 
especially  after  iron  was  known.  For  three  thousand  years,  and 
from  the  southern  Mediterranean  in  its  progress  to  the  North 
Sea,  the  sword  grew  longer  and  longer,  but  always  by  gradual 
modification :  the  whole  series  of  forms  shows  a  transition  in  both 
time  and  geography.  The  Greek  and  Roman  sword  remained  of 
thigh  length,  and  was  used  mainly  for  thrusting;  the  Keltic 
and  Germanic  weapon  was  for  hewing  and  almost  unwieldy ; 
blades  so  big  as  to  require  two-handed  swinging  finally  came  to 
be  employed — a  barbaric,  ineffective  exaggeration  to  which  the 
long-cultured  Mediterraneans  never  descended. 

227.  Iron 

Iron  was  worked  by  man  about  two  thousand  years  later  than 
bronze.  It  is  a  far  more  abundant  metal  than  copper,  and 


(§  116)  :  a  probable  example  of  the  spread  of  a  culture  device  over  a 
continent.  Above,  Mycenae,  Greece;  middle,  Alcalar,  Portugal;  below, 
New  Grange,  Ireland.  The  Mycenaean  structure,  1500  B.C.  or  after,  at 
the  verge  of  the  Iron  Age,  is  probably  later  by  some  1,000  years  than 
the  others,  which  are  late  Neolithic  with  copper  first  appearing;  and  its 
workmanship  is  far  superior.  (After  Sophus  Muller  and  Dechelette.) 


PREHISTORY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


421 


though  it  melts  at  a  higher  temperature,  is  not  naturally  harder 
to  extract  from  some  of  its  ores.  The  reason  for  its  lateness  of 
use  is  not  wholly  explained.  It  is  likely  that  the  first  use  of 
metals  was  of  those,  like  gold  and  copper,  that  are  found  in  the 
pure  metallic  state  and,  being  rather  soft,  could  be  treated  by 
hammering  without  heat — by  processes  more  or  less  familiar  to 
stone  age  culture.  It  is  known  that  fair  amounts  of  copper 
were  worked  in  this  way  by  many  tribes  of  North  American 
Indians,  who  got  their  supplies  from  the  Lake  Superior  deposits 
and  the  Copper  River  placers  in  Alaska.  If  the  same  thing 
happened  in  the  most  progressive  parts  of  the  Eastern  Hemi¬ 
sphere  some  6,000  years  ago,  acquaintance  with  the  metal  may 
before  long  have  been  succeeded  by  the  invention  of  the  arts 
of  casting  and  extracting  it  from  its  ores.  When,  not  many  cen¬ 
turies  later,  the  hardening  powers  of  an  admixture  of  tin  were 
discovered  and  bronze  with  its  far  greater  serviceability  for 
tools  became  known,  a  powerful  impetus  was  surely  given  to  the 
new  metallurgy,  which  was  restricted  only  by  the  limitations 
of  the  supply  of  metal,  especially  tin.  Progress  went  on  in  the 
direction  first  taken;  the  alloy  became  better  balanced,  molds 
and  casting  processes  superior,  the  forms  attempted  more  ad¬ 
venturous  or  efficient.  For  many  centuries  iron  ores  were  dis¬ 
regarded;  the  bronze  habit  intensified.  Finally,  accident  may 
have  brought  the  discovery  of  iron ;  or  shortage  of  bronze  led  to 
experimenting  with  other  ores ;  and  a  new  age  dawned. 

Whatever  the  forces  at  work,  the  actual  events  were  clearly 
those  outlined.  And  it  is  interesting  that  the  New  World  fur¬ 
nishes  an  exact  parallel  with  its  three  areas  and  stages  of  native 
copper,  smelted  copper  and  gold,  and  bronze  (§  108,  196),  and 
with  only  the  final  period  of  iron  unattained  at  the  time  of 
discovery. 

228.  First  Use  and  Spread  of  Iron 

Some  of  the  earliest  known  cases  of  the  use  of  iron  were  deco¬ 
rative  :  for  jewelry,  or  as  inlay  upon  bronze.  Finds  of  this  sort 
have  been  made  in  Switzerland,  Germany,  Greece,  and  the  Cau¬ 
casus.  Once  however  the  extraction  of  the  new  material  had 
become  known,  its  abundance  was  so  great  as  to  further  its  em- 


422 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


ployment,  which  grew  fairly  rapidly,  though  held  back  by  several 
factors.  One  of  these  retarding  causes  was  the  prevalence  of 
the  casting  process,  which  had  become  definitely  established  for 
bronze  and  was  carried  on  with  great  skill,  whereas  iron  lends 
itself  to  ready  casting  only  in  a  foundry  and  for  objects  of 
larger  size  than  were  in  customary  use  among  the  ancients. 
They  forged  their  iron,  and  this  new  art  had  to  be  gradually 
learned.  At  its  best,  it  could  not  produce  some  of  the  finer 
results  of  casting;  in  ornaments  and  statuettes,  for  instance. 

Wrought  iron  is  comparatively  soft.  A  bronze  knife  will  cut 
or  shave  better  than  a  forged  iron  one.  It  was  not  until  it  was 
discovered  that  the  iron  from  certain  ores  could  be  converted 
into  steel  by  tempering — plunging  the  heated  implement  into 
water — that  the  new  metal  became  a  tool  material  superior  to 
bronze.  The  invention  of  tempering  seems  to  have  followed 
fairly  soon  after  the  discovery  of  iron.  But  some  centuries 
elapsed  before  this  art  became  at  all  general. 

Finally,  conservative  fashion  operated  to  delay  the  undisputed 
supremacy  of  iron.  Bronze  has  an  attractive  goldenish  color; 
it  oxidizes  slowly  and  superficially;  it  was  anchored  in  ritual; 
and  it  tended  to  remain  associated  with  state  and  splendor,  with 
wealth  and  nobility,  whereas  iron  crept  into  commonplace  and 
humble  usages.  Nearly  four  centuries  after  iron  became  known 
in  the  Greek  world,  the  Iliad  mentions  it  but  twenty-three  times, 
bronze  two  hundred  and  seventy  times.  In  the  Odyssey,  a  more 
bourgeois  epic,  and  a  little  later  in  authorship,  the  proportion 
of  references  to  iron  is  higher:  twenty-nine  to  eighty.  The  first 
four  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  composition  of  whose  older 
parts  is  usually  placed  synchronous  with  that  of  the  Iliad — ■ 
about  850  B.C. — but  whose  outlook  is  the  conservative  one  of 
religion,  mention  iron  still  more  rarely:  four  times  as  against 
eighty-three  references  to  bronze — “brass”  the  Authorized  Ver¬ 
sion  calls  it. 

Which  nation  first  made  iron  available  to  the  world  has  not 
yet  been  ascertained.  It  was  almost  certainly  some  people  in 
western  Asia.  The  Hittites  of  Asia  Minor,  the  Chalybes  of 
Armenia,  are  prominent  contenders  for  the  honor.  It  could 
scarcely  have  been  the  most  civilized  people  of  the  region,  the 
Babylonians,  because  their  alluvial  country  contains  neither  ore 


PREHISTORY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


423 


nor  stone.  The  time  was  probably  subsequent  to  1500  B.C.,  but 
not  long  after.  By  the  time  of  Rameses  the  Great,  in  the  thir¬ 
teenth  century,  the  metal  was  known  and  somewhat  used  in 
Egypt,  being  imported  from  the  ITittites.  Contemporaneously, 
the  early  Greek  invaders  who  overthrew  the  AEgean  culture  of 
Crete  and  Mycenae  and  Troy  were  in  the  beginnings  of  the  Iron 
Age.  Italy  learned  the  new  material  from  the  Etruscans  about 
1100  B.C.  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  records  seem  to  refer  to  it 
some  few  centuries  earlier.  The  Jews  in  the  time  of  Saul,  1000 
B.C.,  are  said  by  the  Bible  to  have  had  little  iron  and  no  steel, 
a  fact  that  made  possible  their  oppression  by  the  Philistines  of 
the  coast.  This  people,  apparently  descendants  of  the  Minoan 
Cretans,  have  recently  been  alleged  as  the  discoverers  of  the 
art  of  steel  making ;  though  whether  with  reason,  remains  to  be 
proved.  In  central  Europe  iron  became  fairly  abundant  about 
900  B.C.,  and  was  soon  mined  and  smelted  locally.  In  northern 
Europe  its  first  sporadic  appearance  is  soon  after,  but  its  gen¬ 
eral  prevalence,  justifying  the  use  of  the  term.  Iron  Age,  not 
anterior  to  500  B.C. 

In  the  Far  East,  the  history  of  iron  is  little  known.  In  India, 
where  it  is  likely  to  have  been  derived  from  western  Asia  or 
Persia,  its  first  mention  is  at  the  end  of  the  Vedic  period,  whose 
close  is  variously  estimated  at  1400  B.C.  and  1000  B.C.  The 
metal  must  have  been  new  then:  it  was  called  “dark  blue 
bronze.  ’  ’  The  Hindus  later  carried  knowledge  of  iron  and  steel¬ 
working  to  the  Malaysian  East  Indies. 

When  China  got  its  first  iron  is  not  known,  though  it  appears 
to  have  been  comparatively  late.  By  the  early  part  of  the 
seventh  century  before  Christ,  iron  had  become  common  enough 
to  be  taxed.  But  it  was  used  for  hoes,  plowshares,  hatchets, 
needles,  and  domestic  purposes  only.  Not  until  the  fifth  cen¬ 
tury  B.C.  did  steel-making  become  introduced  into  China,  and 
bronze  begin  to  be  superseded  for  weapons.  Even  in  the  first 
century  after  Christ  the  natives  of  southernmost  China  were 
fighting  with  bronze  weapons  in  their  struggle  against  amalga¬ 
mation  with  the  empire.  At  any  rate,  the  Chou  dynasty,  the 
period  of  the  production  of  the  literary  classics,  from  the 
eleventh  to  the  third  century  B.C.,  was  still  prevailingly  a  time 
of  bronze,  as  attested  both  by  native  historical  records  and  the 


424 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


evidences  of  archaeology.  This  lateness  of  iron  in  the  Far  East 
raises  a  strong  probabiltiy  that  the  Chinese  did  not  enter  the 
iron  stage  through  their  own  discovery  but  were  led  into  it  by 
the  example  of  Mongol  or  Turkish  peoples  of  north  central  Asia, 
who  in  turn  leaned  upon  the  western  Asiatics. 

Japan  has  a  definite  Iron  Age,  well  known  through  excava¬ 
tions.  It  is  thought  to  have  begun  about  the  fourth  century 
B.C.  This  approximate  contemporaneity  with  China,  whereas 
in  nearly  all  the  remainder  of  its  culture  Japan  borrowed  from 
China  and  followed  long  behind  it  in  time,  suggests  that  the 
Japanese  or  neighboring  Koreans  may  have  learned  of  iron 
directly  from  the  north  Asiatic  teachers  of  the  Chinese. 

229.  The  Hallstadt  and  LaTene  Periods 

North  of  the  Mediterranean  lands,  the  prehistoric  Iron  Age 
of  Europe  is  divided  into  two  periods :  that  of  Hallstadt,  named 
after  a  site  in  Austria,  and  lasting  from  about  900  to  500  B.C. ; 
and  that  of  LaTene,  designated  from  a  famous  discovery  in 
Switzerland,  which  stretched  from  500  B.C.  until  almost  the 
birth  of  Christ.  The  Hallstadt  period  is  better  developed  in 
middle  than  in  western  Europe :  it  was  influenced  from  Greece, 
the  Balkans,  and  Italy.  It  prevailed  along  the  Adriatic  and 
Danube  as  far  as  Bosnia  and  Hungary;  over  all  but  northern 
Germany ;  in  Switzerland ;  and  in  eastern  France.  Its  flow 
was  northwestward.  The  LaTene  culture  was  carried  pri¬ 
marily  by  Kelts,  falls  into  the  period  of  their  greatest  extension 
and  prosperity,  and  centers  in  France.  Here  it  seems  to  have 
developed  under  the  stimulus  of  Greek  colonization  at  Marseilles, 
to  have  spread  northward  to  the  British  Isles,  and  eastward  into 
central  Europe.  Its  general  flow  was  northeastward. 

Considerable  iron  and  bronze  work  of  some  technical  fineness 
was  made  during  the  Hallstadt  and  LaTene  periods.  Fibulas, 
jewelry,  weapons,  and  cult  apparatus  were  often  elaborate.  But 
the  quality  of  the  cultures  remained  homespun,  backward,  and 
barbaric  as  compared  with  the  plasticity  and  polish  which  con¬ 
temporary  Greek  civilization  had  attained. 

The  Hallstadt  culture,  for  instance,  was  wholly  without  cities, 
stone  architecture  or  bridges,  paved  roads,  coins,  writing  of  any 


PREHISTORY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


425 


sort,  the  potter’s  wheel,  or  rotary  millstone;  nor  was  metal  used 
for  agricultural  implements.  It  was  a  time  of  villages,  small 
towns,  and  scattered  homes ;  of  sacred  groves  instead  of  temples ; 
of  boggy  roads,  of  ox-carts  and  solid  wooden  wheels ;  of  a  heavy, 
barbaric,  warlike  population,  half  like  European  peasants,  half 
like  pioneers;  self-content,  yet  always  dimly  conscious  that  in 
the  southern  distance  there  lay  lands  of  wealth,  refinement,  and 
achievement. 

The  LaTene  time  showed  many  advances ;  but,  relatively  to 
the  civilizations  of  Greece  and  Rome — it  was  the  period  of 
Phidias  and  Plato,  of  Archimedes  and  Cicero — the  northern 
culture  was  as  many  milestones  of  progress  behind  as  during 
the  Hallstadt  era.  The  coins  in  use  were  Greek,  or  local  imita¬ 
tions  of  Greek  money,  their  figures  and  legends  often  corrupted 
to  complete  meaninglessness.  Writing  was  still  absent.  Some 
attempts  at  script  began  to  be  made  toward  the  close  of  LaTene, 
but  they  resulted  in  nothing  more  than  the  awkward  Ogham 
and  Runic  systems.  Until  perhaps  a  century  or  two  before 
Caesar,  there  were  no  cities  or  fortified  towns  in  Gaul.  When 
they  arose,  it  was  on  heights,  behind  walls  of  mixed  logs,  earth, 
and  stone,  as  against  the  masonry  circumvallations  which  the 
HUgean  peoples  were  erecting  more  than  a  thousand  years  before. 
Even  these  poor  towns  were  built  only  by  Kelts ;  the  Germanic 
tribes  remained  shy  of  them  for  centuries  longer.  Society  was 
still  essentially  proto-feudal  and  rustic.  But  there  had  filtered 
in  from  the  Mediterranean,  and  were  being  wrought  locally, 
holed  axes,  iron  wagon  wheels,  the  potter’s  wheel  and  potter’s 
oven,  rotary  mills,  dice,  tongs,  scissors,  saws,  and  scythes — all 
new  to  these  northern  lands,  and  curiously  modern  in  their  fun¬ 
damental  types  as  compared  with  the  essentially  half-primitive, 
half-barbarian  suggestion  that  Hallstadt  manufactures  carry. 

230.  Summary  of  Development:  Regional  Differentiation 

Two  conclusions  emerge  from  the  facts  reviewed  in  this  chap¬ 
ter  and  serve  to  prevent  an  over-simple  and  schematic  concep¬ 
tion  of  the  growth  of  prehistoric  civilization.  The  first  is  that 
successive  phases  of  culture,  even  in  the  earliest  times,  cannot 
be  identified,  much  less  really  understood,  by  reference  to  any 


426 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


single  criterion  sucli  as  this  or  that  technique  of  working  stone 
or  the  knowledge  of  this  or  that  metal.  In  every  case  the  cul¬ 
ture  is  complex  and  characterized  by  a  variety  of  traits  whose 
combination  produces  its  distinctive  cast.  The  more  important 
of  these  culture  traits,  with  particular  reference  to  Europe,  may 
be  summarized  thus : 


Period 


Culture  Elements  Appearing 


Iron 

Bronze 

Full  Neolithic 
Early  Neolithic 
Upper  Palaeolithic 
Lower  Palaeolithic 


Iron,  steel ;  in  the  Orient,  alphabet 
Metals,  alloying,  megaliths;  in  the  Orient,  masonry, 
writing 

Domesticated  animals  and  plants,  stone  polishing 

Pottery,  bow 

Bone  work,  harpoon,  art 

Fire,  flint  work 


The  second  conclusion  is  that  differentiation  of  culture  ac¬ 
cording  to  region  is  too  great  to  be  lightly  brushed  aside.  Even 
for  the  Palaeolithic,  which  is  so  imperfectly  known  outside  of 
Europe,  and  whose  content  is  so  simple,  it  is  clear  that  the 
developmental  sequences  in  Europe  cannot  be  correctly  inter¬ 
preted  without  reference  to  provincial  growths  and  their  affilia¬ 
tions  in  other  continents  (§  214-216).  In  the  Neolithic,  Bronze, 
and  Iron  Ages,  regional  diversity  increases.  Egypt  and  China, 
India  and  France,  present  deeply  differentiated  pictures  in  3000 
B.C.,  and  again  in  1000.  Their  cultures  have  throughout  a 
separate  aspect.  And  yet  innumerable  connections  link  them. 
The  very  bronze  and  iron  that  name  the  later  ages,  the  grains 
and  animals  that  are  the  basis  of  their  economic  life,  were  inter- 
continentally  disseminated,  and  represent  in  most  of  the  lands 
that  came  to  possess  them  an  import  from  an  alien  focus  of 
growth.  And  currents  usually  run  both  ways.  China  received 
metals,  wheat,  cattle  and  horses,  cotton,  architecture,  religion, 
possibly  the  suggestion  of  script,  from  the  west ;  but  she  gave 
to  it  silk  and  porcelain,  gunpowder  and  paper.  Also  there  are 
inertias  and  absences  to  be  reckoned  with.  The  Near  East  prob¬ 
ably  gave  to  Europe  most  of  the  elements  of  civilization  which 
the  latter  possessed  during  the  Neolithic,  Bronze,  and  Iron 
periods ;  but  much  which  the  Near  East  had ,  it  failed  to 
transmit.  Writing  flowed  into  Europe  a  full  two  thousand 
years  after  bronze,  with  which  it  was  coeval  in  origin.  Coinage 


PREHISTORY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY  427 

is  far  later  in  the  Orient  than  masonry,  but  outstripped  it  and 
became  earlier  established  in  western  Europe. 

The  result  is  a  great  tangled  web,  whose  structure  is  only 
gradually  being  revealed  by  painstaking  comparison  and  inten¬ 
sive  study.  Often  the  most  convincing  evidence  as  to  the  com¬ 
position  and  direction  of  the  culture  currents  is  provided  by 
highly  specialized  matters:  styles  of  pottery  decoration,  shapes 
of  ax  heads,  forms  of  ornamental  safety-pins.  It  is  not  because 
these  minutiae  are  so  fascinating  in  themselves  that  archaeologists 
are  ehdlessly  and  often  tediously  concerned  with  them.  It  is 
because  these  data  offer  the  longest  clues  through  the  labyrinth, 
because  on  their  sure  sequences  can  be  strung  hundreds  of  other¬ 
wise  non-significant  or  detached  facts.  But  the  results  are  as 
yet  incomplete;  they  are  and  promise  to  remain  forever  com¬ 
plex;  and  their  systematic  presentation  in  coherent  narrative 
awaits  a  larger  and  future  treatment.  It  will  be  wisest,  in  a 
work  of  the  present  compass,  to  outline  the  whole  development 
of  a  single  area,  to  serve  as  a  type  sample. 

231.  The  Scandinavian  Area  as  an  Example 

The  most  satisfactory  region  for  such  a  purpose  is  Scandi¬ 
navia — the  peninsula,  Denmark,  and  the  Baltic  coasts,  including 
much  of  northeast  Germany.  This  was  a  glacier-covered  area 
in  the  Mousterian,  and  either  obliterated  or  uninhabited  in  the 
Upper  Palaeolithic.  It  has  therefore  no  Old  Stone  Age  history. 
During  the  Magdalenian,  the  glaciers  had  shrunk  to  cover  only 
most  of  the  Scandinavian  peninsula  and  Finland.  Denmark 
was  ice-free.  But  what  is  now  the  Baltic  stretched  as  an  open 
sound  from  the  North  Sea  across  southern  Finland  and  north¬ 
western  Russia  to  the  Arctic  Ocean.  From  this  ocean  as  well 
as  the  remaining  glaciers  emanated  a  low  temperature,  in  which 
there  throve  arctic  forms  of  life,  especially  the  small  shell 
Yoldia  arctica,  which  flourishes  only  where  the  sea  bottom  tem¬ 
perature  ranges  between  1  °  plus  and  2  °  minus  Centigrade.  This 
great,  chilly  sound  of  some  sixteen  to  ten  thousand  years  ago 
is  known  as  the  Yoldia  Sea.  Denmark  and  the  German  coast 
must  still  have  been  cold,  as  the  remains  of  the  sub-arctic  flora 
show,  and  were  without  human  inhabitants. 


428 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


232.  The  Late  Palaeolithic  Ancylus  or  Maglemose  Period 

Around  10,000  B.C.,  as  western  Europe  was  entering  upon 
the  Azilian  aftermath  of  the  Palaeolithic,  the  land  at  both  ends 
of  the  Yoldia  Sea  was  elevated  sufficiently  to  cut  this  off  from 
the  open  ocean.  The  Baltic  was  thus  closed  at  both  ends,  instead 
of  neither,  as  before,  or  one  only,  as  now.  The  rivers  continued 
to  flow  into  it;  it  became  brackish  and  almost  fresh,  and  the 
fauna  changed.  The  distinctive  fossil  shell  became  Ancylus 
fluviatilis,  from  which  the  great  lake  is  known  as  the  Ancylus 
Lake.  The  Scandinavian  flora  once  more  included  real  trees, 
chiefly  pines  and  birches. 

Man  occupied  south  Sweden  and  Denmark  in  the  Ancylus 
period.  At  Maglemose  have  been  found  his  remains  during  this 
Scandinavian  equivalent  of  the  Azilian.  Here  he  appears  to 
have  lived  on  rafts  floating  on  a  lake,  which  subsequently  filled 
with  peat.  Whatever  fell  overboard,  became  embedded  in  the 
growing  peat  and  was  preserved.  The  inhabitants  cut  their 
raft  logs  and  firewood  with  axes  of  bone  and  elk  horn,  some  of 
them  perforated  for  handles.  They  had  bone  fish-hooks,  har¬ 
poons  with  single  and  double  rows  of  barbs,  and  still  others  with 
slits  for  the  insertion  of  minute  flint  blades,  much  like  saw  teeth. 
Some  of  the  microlithic  points  have*  also  been  found.  All  of  the 
stone  was  chipped ;  there  is  no  trace  of  polishing  other  than  of 
bone  and  antler.  They  engraved,  sometimes  in  a  deteriorated 
style  of  Magdalenian  naturalism,  sometimes  with  simple  geo¬ 
metric  ornaments.  The  dog  accompanied  these  people,  perhaps 
was  already  half  tame.  Remains  similar  to  those  of  Maglemose 
have  been  found  in  several  of  the  Baltic  lands. 

233.  The  Early  Neolithic  Litorina  or  Kitchenmidden  Period 

Within  perhaps  two  thousand  years,  the  Baltic  opened  again 
as  at  present,  grew  saltier,  and  took  on  much  its  present  con¬ 
ditions,  except  for  being  somewhat  larger.  The  water  warmed, 
and  Litorina  litorea  and  the  oyster  became  the  characteristic 
molluscs.  The  climate  was  milder  than  before,  and  the  forests 
changed  from  birches  and  pines  to  oaks. 

The  men  of  this  period  lived  largely  on  oysters  and  scallops, 


PREHISTORY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


429 


whose  shells  piled  up  about  their  habitations  by  millions,  form¬ 
ing  ridge-like  mounds  sometimes  hundreds  of  yards  long.  These 
are  the  Kjokkenmoddings,  or  Kitchenmiddens,  refuse  heaps  or 
shell  heaps.  Among  the  shells  are  ashes,  bones  of  the  land  ani¬ 
mals  and  birds  that  were  hunted,  and  lost  or  broken  utensils. 
Some  of  the  Maglemose  implements  continued  to  be  used,  such 
as  bone  awls,  chisels,  and  fish-hooks.  Others  were  no  longer 
made:  harpoons,  the  minute  flint  blades,  and  engraved  objects. 
But  new  forms  had  come  in:  above  all,  pottery  and  the  stone 
ax — evidences  that  this  was  an  early  period  of  the  Neolithic, 
even  though  polished  stone  was  still  lacking.  The  ax  or 
“ splitter”  was  chipped — hewn  is  really  a  more  fitting  term — 
oval  or  trapezoidal  in  outline,  the  cutting  edge  convex  or 
straight.  It  seems  to  have  been  lashed  to  an  elbow  handle :  there 
was  no  groove  or  perforation.  The  pottery  was  coarse,  dark, 
and  undecorated  except  sometimes  for  rows  of  crude  dot  impres¬ 
sions  along  the  edge.  Another  new  implement  was  a  handled 
bone  comb  with  four  or  five  teeth.  It  appears  to  have  been 
employed  for  carding  rather  than  hair-dressing.  The  bow  was 
in  use:  arrowheads  bore  a  cutting  edge  in  front.  The  dog  was 
the  only  domestic  or  semi-domesticated  animal ;  probably  a 
Spitz-like  breed,  perhaps  of  jackal  origin.  He  managed  to  gnaw 
most  of  the  bones  that  have  been  preserved  in  the  shell  layers. 

Approximately  contemporary  with  the  Danish  kitchenmiddens, 
and  similar  to  them  in  their  cultural  repertoire,  are  a  Spanish 
phase  known  as  Asturian  and  the  Campignian  of  northern 
France.  The  Asturian  remains  are  also  shell  deposits.  Their 
lower  levels  contain  bones  of  cattle  that  had  perhaps  been 
domesticated ;  middle  strata  add  the  sheep ;  and  in  the  upper¬ 
most,  pottery  appears.  The  northern  ax  is  replaced  by  a  hand¬ 
held  pick.  The  Campignian  possessed  hewn  axes  or  splitters 
similar  to  the  Danish  ones ;  pottery ;  ♦  domesticated  cattle ;  and 
seems  to' have  made  a  beginning  of  agriculture  with  barley.  It 
would  thus  seem  that  pottery  and  the  hewn  ax  were  the  char¬ 
acteristic  general  criteria  of  this  Early  Neolithic  stage,  with 
domesticated  animals  and  agriculture  coming  in  earlier  in  south¬ 
ern  and  middle  Europe,  whereas  the  northerners  continued  to 
depend  longer  on  shellfish  and  game. 


430 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


234.  The  Full  Neolithic  and  Its  Subdivisions  in  Scandinavia 

Two  or  three  thousand  years  passed,  and  by  about  5500  B.C. 
the  Scandinavian  climate  had  become  slightly  cooler  once  more, 
the  oaks  gave  way  to  birches  and  pines,  the  Baltic  lost  some  of 
its  salt  content,  and  the  oyster  grew  scarcer.  The  Kitchen- 
midden  or  Litorina  period  of  the  Early  Neolithic  was  over;  the 
Full  Neolithic  had  arrived.  Axes  were  polished,  cattle  kept, 
grain  grown.  Four  Stages  of  development  are  discernible. 

5500-3500  B.C.  Burials  in  soil.  Sharp-butted  axes. 

3500-2500  B.C.  Burials  in  dolmens,  chambers  of  three  to  five  flat 
upright  stones,  roofed  with  one  slab.  Narrow-butted  axes. 

2500-2100  B.C.  Burials  in  Allees  couvertes  or  Ganggraeber,  chambers 
of  dolmen  type  but  larger  and  with  a  roofed  corridor  approach.  Thick- 
butted  axes.  Some  copper.  Beautifully  neat  and  even  chipping  of 
flint  daggers,  lance  heads,  arrowpoints,  some  suggesting  by  their  forms 
that  they  may  be  flint  imitations  of  bronzes  already  in  use  on  the 
Mediterranean.  The  same  is  true  of  perforated  stone  axes,  ground 
into  ornamental  curves,  such  as  are  natural  in  cast  metal. 

2100-1900  B.C.  Burials  in  stone  cysts,  progressively  decreasing  in 
size.  Thick-butted  axes.  Chipped  daggers  and  curving  axes  remi¬ 
niscent  of  bronze  forms  continue.  The  first  bronze  appears,  its  per¬ 
centage  of  tin  still  low. 


235.  The  Bronze  Age  and  Its  Periods  in  Scandinavia 

Bronze  reached  the  Scandinavian  region  late,  as  a  well 
developed  art,  and  its  working  soon  showed  a  high  degree  of 
technical  and  cesthetic  excellence.  But  arts  that  in  the  Orient 
had  appeared  almost  simultaneously  with  bronze — writing,  ma¬ 
sonry,  wheel  turning  of  pottery — did  not  reach  Scandinavia 
until  after  bronze  had  been  superseded  by  iron  there.  The 
consequence  was  that  the  Northern  culture  remained  on  the 
whole  thoroughly  barbarous.  And  yet,  perhaps  on  account  of 
this  very  backwardness,  an  aloofness  resulted  which  drove  the 
Scandinavian  bronze-workers  to  follow7  their  own  tastes  and 
develop  their  own  forms  and  styles,  often  with  taste  as  exquisite 
as  simple.  In  other  words,  a  local  culture  grew,  much  like  the 
analogous  local  cultures  in  America  which  have  been  traced  in 
previous  chapters.  Yet  the  basis  of  this  Northern  bronze  cul- 


PREHISTORY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


431 


ture  was  southern  and  Oriental  invention ;  and  the  south  and 
east  continued  to  influence  Scandinavia.  The  northern  safety- 
pin,  for  instance,  underwent  the  same  stages  as  the  southern 
one :  backs  that  were  first  straight  and  narrow,  then  sheetlike, 
then  bowed,  with  the  ends  enlarging  to  great  buckles  or  disks. 
But  the  southern  fibula,  whatever  its  type  or  period,  was  one- 
piece  and  elastic,  the  northern  at  all  times  made  of  two  separate 
parts,  and  without  real  spring. 

Connection  with  other  countries  is  evident  from  the  North¬ 
ern  bronze  itself,  at  least  the  tin  of  which, ,if  not  the  alloy,  was 
imported.  Yet  the  finds  of  the  Scandinavian  Bronze  Age, 
numerous  as  they  are,  do  not  contain  a  single  specimen  that 
can  be  traced  to  Egypt  or  to  Greece.  Even  pieces  made  in 
middle  Europe  are  rare.  And  molds,  ladles,  unfinished  castings, 
prove  that  the  North  cast  its  own  bronze  on  the  spot.  First 
knowledge  of  the  art  had  evidently  seeped  in  from  the  region 
of  Switzerland,  Austria,  and  Hungary,  which  in  turn  derived 
it  from  the  Italian  and  Balkan  peninsulas,  which  at  a  still 
earlier  time  had  learned  it  from  Egypt  or  Asia. 

It  appears,  then,  that  it  would  be  equally  erroneous  to  regard 
the  Scandinavian  Bronze  Age  as  an  independent  development 
or  to  regard  it  as  a  mere  copy  or  importation  from  the  Orient. 
It  was  neither;  or,  in  a  sense,  it  was  both.  Its  origin  lies  in 
the  great  early  focal  point  of  civilization  in  the  Near  East ;  its 
specific  form,  the  qualities  which  it  took  on,  are  its  own.  The 
disseminated  ingredient,  the  basis  due  to  diffusion,  must  be  ad¬ 
mitted  as  fully  as  the  elements  of  local  development  which  mark 
off  a  distinct  Northern  culture-area,  or  sub-focus  of  cultural 
energy. 

This  interplay  of  forces  is  typical  also  of  the  Iron  and  New 
Stone  Ages,  and  it  is  the  number  of  local  centers  of  culture 
growth,  their  increasingly  rapid  flourishing  as  time  went  on, 
and  the  multiplication  of  connections  between  countries,  that 
render  the  prehistory  of  Eur-Asiatic  civilization  so  difficult.  If 
enough  were  known  of  the  life  of  the  Palaeolithic,  it  is  probable 
that  a  similar  though  less  intricate  tangle  of  developments  might 
be  evident  for  that  period  also. 

The  resemblance  to  the  interrelations  of  areas  within  America 
is  manifest.  The  Southwest  stands  to  southern  Mexico  as  Scan- 


432 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


dinavia  does  to  the  Orient :  suffused  by  it,  stimulated  by  it, 
created  by  it,  almost ;  yet  at  all  times  with  a  provincial  cast  of 
its  own.  The  Southwestern  specialist  can  trace  a  continuous 
evolution  on  the  spot  which  tempts  him  to  forget  the  obvious 
and  indisputable  Mexican  origins.  The  Mexicanist,  on  the  other 
hand,  impressed  by  the  practical  identity  of  fundamentals  and 
close  resemblance  in  many  details,  is  likely  to  see  Southwestern 
culture  only  as  a  mutilated  copy  of  the  higher  civilization  to  the 
south.  Correct  understanding  requires  the  balancing  of  both, 
views. 

Close  equivalents  of  the  culture-areas  of  American  ethnolo¬ 
gists  are  in  fact  recognized  by  European  archgeologists.  Thus, 
Dechelette  distinguishes  seven  ‘ ‘geographical  provinces”  in  the 
Bronze  Age  of  Europe,  as  follows:  1,  JEgean  (Greece,  islands, 
coast  of  Asia  Minor)  ;  2,  Italian  (with  Sicily  and  Sardinia)  ; 
3,  Iberian  (Spain,  Portugal,  Balearics)  ;  4,  Western  (Prance, 
Great  Britain,  Ireland,  Belgium,  southern  Germany,  Switzer¬ 
land,  Bohemia)  ;  5,  Danubian  (Hungary,  Moravia,  the  Balkan 
countries)  ;  6,  Scandinavian  (including  northern  Germany  and 
the  Baltic  coast)  ;  7,  TJralic  (Russia  and  western  Siberia). 

The  fourteen  hundred  years  generally  allowed  the  Scandi¬ 
navian  Bronze  Age  are  divisible  into  five  or  six  periods,1  which 
become  progressively  shorter. 

2500-2100,  Neolithic,  with  copper,  and  2100-1900,  with  occasional 
bronze,  have  already  been  mentioned. 

1900-1600  B.C.  Burial  in  stone  cysts.  Little  decoration  of  bronze, 
and  that  only  in  straight  lines.  Flat  ax  heads  or  celts.  Triangular 
daggers.  Daggers  mounted  on  staves  like  ax  heads. 

1600-1400  B.C.  Occasional  cremation  of  corpses,  the  ashes  put  into 
very  small  cysts.  Decoration  of  bronze  in  engraved  spirals.  Flanged 
and  stop-ridged  axes.  Swords.  Straight  fibulas. 

1400-1050  B.C.  Cremation  general.  Axes  of  socketed  type.  Bowed 
fibulas.  Bronze  vessels  with  lids. 

1050-850  B.C.  Spiral  ornament  decaying.  Fibulas  with  two  large 
bosses.  Ship-shaped  razors. 

850-650  B.C.  Ornamentation  plastic,  rather  than  engraved,  often 
produced  in  the  casting.  Rows  of  concentric  circles  and  other  patterns 

i  In  France,  four  or  five  periods  are  distinguished:  2500-1900;  1900-1600; 
1600-1300;  1300-900  B.C.  The  first  of  these  is  a  time  of  copper  rather  than 
bronze,  with  northern  France  still  Neolithic.  If  five  periods  are  admitted, 
an  era  around  1300  B.C.  is  recognized  as  a  separate  division. 


PREHISTORY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY  433 

replace  spirals.  Fibulas  with  two  large  disks.  Knives  with  voluted 
antennas-like  handles.  Sporadic  occurrence  of  iron. 

650-500  B.C.  Iron  increasing  in  use;  decorative  bronze  deteriorating. 

236.  Problems  of  Chronology 

The  dating  of  events  in  the  Neolithic  and  Metal  Ages  is  of 
much  more  importance  than  in  the  Palaeolithic.  Whether  an 
invention  was  made  in  Babylonia  in  5000  or  in  3000  B.C.  means 
the  difference  between  its  occurring  in  the  hazy  past  of  a  for¬ 
mative  culture  or  in  a  well  advanced  and  directly  documented 
phase  of  that  culture.  If  the  dolmens  and  other  megalithic 
monuments  of  northern  Europe  were  erected  about  3000  B.C., 
they  are  older  than  the  pyramids  of  Egypt  and  contemporaneous 
with  the  first  slight  unfoldings  of  civilization  in  Crete  and  Troy. 
But  if  their  date  is  1000  B.C.,  they  were  set  up  when  pure  alpha¬ 
betic  writing  and  iron  and  horses  were  in  use  in  western  Asia, 
when  Egypt  was  already  senile,  and  the  Cretan  and  Trojan 
cultures  half  forgotten.  In  the  one  case,  the  megaliths  represent 
a  local  achievement,  perhaps  independent  of  the  stone  architec¬ 
ture  of  Egypt ;  in  the  other  event,  they  are  likely  to  be  a  belated 
and  crudely  barbarian  imitation  of  this  architecture. 

But  in  the  Palaeolithic,  year  dates  scarcely  matter.  Whether 
the  Mousterian  phase  culminated  25,000  or  75,000  years  ago  is 
irrelevant:  it  was  far  before  the  beginning  of  historic  time  in 
either  case.  If  one  sets  the  earlier  date,  the  Chellean  and  Mag- 
dalenian  are  also  stretched  farther  off ;  if  the  later,  it  is  because 
one  shrinks  his  estimate  of  the  whole  Palaeolithic,  the  sequence 
of  whose  periods  remains  fixed.  It  is  really  only  the  relative 
chronology  that  counts  within  the  Old  Stone  Age.  The  dura¬ 
tions  are  so  great,  and  so  wholly  prehistoric,  that  the  only  value 
of  figures  is  the  vividness  of  their  concrete  impression  on  the 
mind,  and  the  emphasis  that  they  place  on  the  length  of  human 
antiquity  as  compared  with  the  brevity  of  recorded  history. 
Palaeolithic  datings  might  almost  be  said  to  be  useful  in  pro¬ 
portion  as  they  are  not  taken  seriously. 

At  the  same  time,  the  chronology  of  the  Palaeolithic  is  aided 
by  several  lines  of  geological  evidence  that  are  practically  absent 
for  the  Neolithic  and  Bronze  Ages :  thickness  of  strata,  height 
of  river  deposits  and  moraines,  depth  of  erosion,  species  of  wild 


434 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


animals.  The  Neolithic  is  too  brief  to  show  notable  traces  of 
geological  processes.  Its  age  must  therefore  be  determined  by 
subtler  means :  slight  changes  in  temperature  and  precipitation ; 
the  thickness  of  refuse  deposits ;  and  above  all,  the  linking  of  its 
latter  phases  to  the  earliest  datable  events  in  documentary  or 
inscriptional  history.  By  these  aids,  comparison  has  gradually 
built  up  a  chronology  which  is  accepted  as  approximate  by 
most  authorities.  This  chronology  puts  the  beginning  of  bronze 
in  the  Baltic  region  at  about  1900  B.C.,  in  Spain  at  2500,  the 
first  Swiss  lake-dwellings  at  4000,  the  domestication  of  cattle 
and  grain  in  middle  Europe  around  5500,  the  first  pottery¬ 
bearing  shellmounds  about  8000  B.C.  Of  course,  these  figures 
must  not  be  taken  as  accurate.  Estimates  vary  somewhat.  Yet 
the  dates  cited  probably  represent  the  opinion  of  the  majority 
of  specialists  without  serious  deviation :  except  on  one  point,  and 
that  an  important  one. 

This  point  is  the  hinge  from  the  end  of  prehistory  to  the 
beginning  of  history :  the  date  of  the  first  dynasties  of  Egypt 
and  Babylonian  Sumer.  On  this  matter,  there  was  for  many 
years  a  wide  discrepancy  among  Orientalists.  The  present  tend¬ 
ency  is  to  set  3400  or  3315  B.C.,  with  an  error  of  not  over  a 
century,  as  the  time  when  upper  and  lower  Egypt  began  to  be 
ruled  by  a  single  king,  Mena,  the  founder  of  the  ‘  ‘  first  dynasty  ’  ’ ; 
2750  as  the  date  of  Sargon  of  Akkad,  the  first  consolidator  and 
empire-builder  in  the  Babylonian  region ;  and  about  3100  as 
the  period  of  the  earliest  discovered  datable  remains  from  the 
Sumerian  city  states. 

The  longer  reckoning  puts  the  Egyptian  first  dynasty  back  to 
about  4000 ;  according  to  some,  even  earlier ;  and  Sargon  to 
3750.  This  last  date  rests  on  the  discovery  by  Nabonidus,  the 
last  king  of  Babylon,  successor  of  Nebuchadnezzar  in  the  sixth 
century  B.C.,  of  a  deeply  buried  inscription  in  a  foundation 
wall  erected  by  Naram-sin,  son  of  Sargon.  Nabonidus  had  anti¬ 
quarian  tastes,  and  set  his  archaeologists  and  historians  to  com¬ 
pute  how  long  before  him  Naram-sin  had  lived.  Their  answer 
was  3,200  years — the  thirty-eighth  century  B.C.,  we  should  say; 
and  this  figure  Nabonidus  had  put  into  an  inscription  which  has 
come  down  to  us.  All  this  looks  direct  and  sure  enough.  But 
did  the  king’s  scholars  really  know  when  they  fold  him  that 


PREHISTORY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


435 


just  3,200  years  had  elapsed  since  his  predecessor’s  reign,  or 
were  they  guessing  ?  The  number  is  a  round  one :  eighty  forties 
of  years,  such  as  the  Old  Testament  is  fond  of  reckoning  with. 
The  trend  of  modern  opinion,  based  on  a  variety  of  considera¬ 
tions,  is  that  the  Babylonian  historians  were  deceiving  either 
the  king  or  themselves. 

The  bearing  of  the  discrepancy  is  this.  The  scholars  who  are 
in  more  or  less  agreement  that  bronze  reached  Mediterranean 
Europe  about  2500  and  Northern  Europe  about  1900,  were  gen¬ 
erally  building  on  the  longer  chronology  of  the  Near  East.  They 
were  putting  Mena  around  4000  and  Sargon  in  3750.  This 
allowed  an  interval  of  over  a  thousand  years  in  which  bronze 
working  could  have  been  carried  to  Spain,  and  two  thousand  to 
Denmark.  With  the  shorter  chronology  for  Egypt  and  Baby¬ 
lonia,  the  time  available  for  the  transmission  has  to  be  cut  down 
by  a  thousand  years.  Should  the  European  dates,  therefore,  be 
made  correspondingly  more  recent?  Or  is  the  diminished  in¬ 
terval  still  sufficient — that  is,  might  a  few  centuries  have  suf¬ 
ficed  to  carry  the  bronze  arts  from  the  Orient  to  Sicily  and 
Spain,  and  a  thousand  years  to  bear  them  to  Scandinavia  ?  The 
interval  seems  reasonable,  and  is  accordingly  the  one  here  ac¬ 
cepted.  But  it  is  possible  that  if  the  shorter  chronology  becomes 
proved  beyond  contradiction  for  Egypt  and  Babylonia,  the  dates 
for  the  Neolithic  and  Bronze  Ages  of  Europe  may  also  have  to 
be  abbreviated  somewhat. 

One  famous  time-reckoning  has  in  fact  been  made  by  the 
Dane  Sophus  Muller,  who,  without  basing  very  much  on  any 
Oriental  chronology,  shortens  all  the  prehistoric  periods  of 
Europe.  His  scheme  of  approximate  dating  is  reproduced,  with 
some  simplifications,  in  Figure  42.  It  will  be  seen  that  he  sets 
the  second  or  dolmen  period  of  the  Full  Neolithic  in  Scandi¬ 
navia  from  about  1800  to  1400  B.C.,  whereas  the  more  usual 
reckoning  puts  it  at  3500  to  2500;  his  earliest  Kitchenmidden 
date  is  4000,  as  against  8000. 

237.  Principles  of  the  Prehistoric  Spread  of  Culture 

This  chronology  has  much  to  commend  it  besides  its  almost 
daring  conservatism;  especially  the  clarity  of  its  consistent 


436 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


Pig.  42.  The  development  of  prehistoric  civilization  in  Europe.  Sim¬ 
plified  from  Sophus  Muller.  His  absolute  dates  are  generally  consid¬ 
ered  too  low,  but  their  relative  intervals  are  almost  undisputed.  The 
diagram  shows  very  clearly  the  persistent  cultural  precedence  of  the 
countries  nearest  the  Orient,  and  the  lagging  of  western  and  especially 
of  northern  Europe. 


PREHISTORY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


437 


recognition  of  certain  cultural  processes.  Five  principles  and 
three  extensions  are  set  up  by  Muller: 

/ 

1.  The  south  [of  Europe,  with  the  Near  East]  was  the  vanguard 
and  dispensing  source  of  culture;  the  peripheral  regions,  especially 
in  the  north  [of  Europe]  followed  and  received. 

2.  The  elements  of  southern  culture  were  transmitted  to  the  north 
only  in  reduction  and  extract. 

3.  They  were  also  subject  to  modifications. 

4.  These  elements  of  southern  culture  sometimes  appeared  in  the 
remoter  areas  with  great  vigor  and  new  qualities  of  their  own. 

5.  But  such  remote  appearances  are  later  in  time  than  the  occur¬ 
rence  of  the  same  elements  in  the  south. 

6.  Forms  of  artifacts  or  ornaments  may  survive  for  a  long  time  with 
but  little  modification,  especially  if  transmitted  to  new  territory. 

7.  Separate  elements  characteristic  of  successive  periods  in  a  cul¬ 
ture  center  may  occur  contemporaneously  in  the  marginal  areas,  their 
diffusion  having  occurred  at  different  rates  of  speed. 

8.  Marginal  cultures  thus  present  a  curious  mixture  of  traits  whose 
original  age  is  great  and  of  others  that  are  much  newer;  the  latter, 
in  fact,  occasionally  reach  the  peripheries  earlier  than  old  traits. 

The  basic  idea  of  these  formulations  is  that  of  the  gradual 
radiation  of  culture  from  creative  focal  centers  to  backward 
marginal  areas,  without  the  original  dependence  of  the  periph¬ 
eries  wholly  precluding  their  subsequent  independent  develop¬ 
ment.  It  is  obvious  that  this  point  of  view  is  substantially  iden¬ 
tical  with  that  which  has  been  held  to  in  the  presentation  of 
native  American  culture  in  the  preceding  chapter. 

It  is  only  fair  to  say  that  a  number  of  eminent  archaeologists 
combat  the  prevalent  opinion  that  the  sources  of  European  Neo¬ 
lithic  and  Bronze  Age  civilization  are  to  be  derived  almost  wholly 
from  the  Orient.  They  speak  of  this  view  as  an  “  Oriental 
mirage.”  They  see  more  specific  differences  than  identities  be¬ 
tween  the  several  local  cultures  of  the  two  regions,  and  tend  to 
explain  the  similarities  as  due  to  independent  invention. 

Since  knowledge  of  ancient  cultures  is  necessarily  never  com¬ 
plete,  there  is  a  wide  range  of  facts  to  which  either  explanation 
is,  theoretically,  applicable.  But  the  focal-marginal  diffusion 
interpretation  has  the  following  considerations  in  its  favor. 

Within  the  fully  historic  period,  there  have  been  numerous 
undoubted  diffusions,  of  which  the  alphabet,  the  week,  and  the 


438 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


true  arcli  may  be  taken  as  illustrations.  At  least  in  the  earlier 
portion  of  the  historic  period,  the  flow  of  such  diffusions  wTas 
regularly  out  of  the  Orient;  which  raises  a  considerable  pre¬ 
sumption  that  the  flow  was  in  the  same  direction  as  early  as  the 
Neolithic.  On  the  other  hand,  indubitably  independent  paral¬ 
lelisms  are  very  difficult  to  establish  within  historic  areas  and 
periods,  and  therefore  likely  to  have  been  equally  rare  during 
prehistory. 

Then,  too,  the  diffusion  interpretation  explains  a  large  part 
of  civilization  to  a  certain  degree  in  terms  of  a  large,  consistent 
scheme.  To  the  contrary,  the  parallelistic  opinion  leaves  the 
facts  both  unexplained  and  unrelated.  If  the  Etruscans  devised 
the  true  arch  and  liver  divination  independently  of  the  Baby¬ 
lonians,  there  are  two  sets  of  phenomena  awaiting  interpreta¬ 
tion  instead  of  one.  To  say  that  they  are  both  ‘‘natural”  events 
is  equivalent  to  calling  them  accidental,  that  is,  unexplainable. 
To  fall  back  on  instinctive  impulses  of  the  human  mind  will 
not  do,  else  all  or  most  nations  should  have  made  these  inven¬ 
tions. 

Of  course  it  is  important  to  remember  that  no  sane  interpre¬ 
tation  of  culture  explains  everything.  We  do  not  know  what 
caused  the  true  arch  to  be  invented  in  Babylonia,  hieroglyphic 
writing  in  Egypt,  the  alphabet  in  Phoenicia,  at  a  certain  time 
rather  than  at  another  or  rather  than  in  another  place.  The 
diffusion  point  of  view  simply  accepts  certain  intensive  focal 
developments  of  culture  as  empirically  given  by  the  facts,  and 
then  relates  as  many  other  facts  as  possible  to  these.  Every 
clear-minded  historian,  anthropologist,  and  sociologist  admits 
that  we  are  still  in  ignorance  on  the  problems  of  what  caused 
the  great  bursts  of  higher  organization  and  original  productive¬ 
ness  of  early  Egypt  and  Sumer,  of  Crete,  of  ancient  North 
China,  of  the  Mayas,  of  Periclean  Athens.  We  know  many  of 
the  events  of  civilization,  know  them  in  their  place  and  order. 
We  can  infer  from  these  something  of  the  processes  of  imita¬ 
tion,  conservatism,  rationalization  that  have  shaped  them.  We 
know  as  yet  as  good  as  nothing  of  the  first  or  productive  causes 
of  civilization. 

It  is  extremely  important  that  this  limitation  of  our  under¬ 
standing  be  frankly  realized.  It  is  only  awareness  of  darkness 


PREHISTORY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


439 


that  brings  seeking  for  light.  Scientific  problems  must  be  felt 
before  they  can  be  grappled.  But  within  the  bounds  of  our 
actual  knowledge,  the  principle  of  culture  derivation  and  trans¬ 
mission  seems  to  integrate,  and  thus  in  a  measure  to  explain,  a 
far  greater  body  of  facts  than  any  other  principle — provided  it 
is  not  stretched  into  an  instrument  of  magic  and  forced  to  ex¬ 
plain  everything. 


CHAPTER  XV 


THE  GROWTH  OF  CIVILIZATION:  OLD  WORLD 
HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 

238.  The  early  focal  area. — 239.  Egypt  and  Sumer  and  their  background. 
— 240.  Predynastic  Egypt. — 241.  Culture  growth  in  dynastic  Egypt. — 242. 
The  Sumerian  development. — 243  The  Sumerian  hinterland. — 244.  Entry 
of  Semites  and  Indo-Europeans. — 245.  Iranian  peoples  and  cultures. — 246. 
The  composite  culture  of  the  Near  East. — 247.  Phoenicians,  Aramaeans,  He¬ 
brews. — 248.  Other  contributing  nationalities. — 249.  iEgean  civilization. — 
250.  Europe. — 251.  China.— 252.  Growth  and  spread  of  Chinese  civiliza¬ 
tion. — 253.  The  Lolos. — 254.  Korea. — 255.  Japan. — 256.  Central  and 
northern  Asia. — 257.  India. — 258.  Indian  caste  and  religion. — 259.  Rela¬ 
tions  between  India  and  the  outer  world. — 260.  Indo-China. — 261.  Oceania. 
— 262.  The  East  Indies. — 263.  Melanesia  and  Polynesia. — 264.  Australia. 
— 265.  Tasmania. — 266.  Africa. — 267.  Egyptian  radiations. — 268.  The  in¬ 
fluence  of  other  cultures. — 269.  The  Bushmen. — 270.  The  West  African 
culture-area  and  its  meaning. — 271.  Civilization,  race,  and  the  future. 

238.  The  Early  Focal  Area 

The  prehistoric  archgeology  of  Europe  and  the  Near  East, 
outlined  in  the  last  chapter,  besides  arriving  at  a  tolerable 
chronology,  reveals  a  set  of  processes  of  which  the  outstanding 
one  is  the  principle  of  the  origin  of  culture  at  focal  centers  and 
its  diffusion  to  marginal  tracts.  Obviously  this  principle  should 
apply  in  the  field  of  history  as  well  as  prehistory,  and  should 
be  even  more  easily  traceable  there. 

In  the  Western  Hemisphere  it  is  plain  that  the  great  hearth 
of  cultural  nourishment  and  production  has  been  Middle 
America — the  tracts  at  the  two  ends  of  the  intercontinental 
bridge,  the  Isthmus  of  Panama.  That  a  similarly  preeminent 
focal  area  existed  in  the  Eastern  Hemisphere  has  been  implied 
over  and  over  again  in  the  pages  that  immediately  precede  this 
one,  in  the  references  to  the  priority  of  Egypt  and  Babylonia 
— the  countries  of  the  Nile  and  of  the  Two  Rivers.  These  two 
lands  lie  at  no  great  distance  from  each  other :  they  are  closer 
than  Mexico  and  Peru.  Like  these  two,  they  are  also  connected 
by  a  strip  of  mostly  favorable  territory — the  “ Fertile  Crescent’ ’ 
of  Palestine,  Syria,  and  northern  Mesopotamia.  Curiously  the 

440 


j 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


441 


two  countries  also  lie  in  two  continents  connected  by  a  land 
bridge:  the  Isthmus  of  Suez  is  a  parallel  to  that  of  Panama. 

Both  in  Egypt  and  in  Babylonia  we  find  a  little  before  3000 
B.C.  a  system  of  partly  phonetic  writing,  which,  though  cumber¬ 
some  by  modern  standards,  was  adequate  to  record  whatever  was 
spoken.  Copper  was  abundant  and  bronze  in  use  for  weapons 
and  tools.  Pottery  was  being  turned  on  wheels.  Economic  life 
was  at  bottom  agricultural.  The  same  food  plants  were  grown: 
barley  and  wheat;  similar  beer  brewed  from  them.  The  same 
animals  were  raised :  cattle,  swine,  sheep,  goats ;  with  the  ass 
for  transport.  Architecture  was  in  sun-dried  brick.  Consider¬ 
able  walled  cities  had  arisen.  Their  rulers  struggled  or  attained 
supremacy  over  one  another  as  avowed  kings  with  millions  of 
subjects.  A  regulated  calendar  existed  by  which  events  were 
dated.  There  were  taxes,  governors,  courts  of  law,  police  pro¬ 
tection,  and  social  order.  A  series  of  great  gods,  with  particular 
names  and  attributes,  were  worshiped  in  temples. 

239.  Egypt  and  Sumer  and  Their  Background 

It  is  scarcely  conceivable  that  these  two  parallel  growths  of 
civilization,  easily  the  most  advanced  that  had  until  then  ap¬ 
peared  on  earth,  should  have  sprung  up  independently  within 
a  thousand  miles  of  each  other.  Had  Sumerian  culture  blos¬ 
somed  far  away,  say  on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  instead  of  the 
lower  Euphrates,  its  essential  separateness,  like  that  of  Middle 
American  civilization,  might  be  probable.  But  not  only  is  the 
stretch  of  land  between  Babylonia  and  Egypt  relatively  short: 
it  is,  except  in  the  Suez  district,  productive  and  pleasant,  and 
was  settled  fairly  densely  by  relatively  advanced  nations  soon 
after  the  historic  period  opens  or  even  before.  The  same  is  true 
of  the  adjoining  regions.  Canaan,  Syria,  Mesopotamia,  Troy, 
Crete,  Elam,  southwestern  Turkistan,  had  all  passed  beyond 
barbarism  and  into  the  period  of  city  life  during  the  fourth 
and  third  millenia  B.C.  This  cannot  be  a  series  of  coincidences. 
Evidently  western  Asia,  together  with  the  nearest  European 
islands  and  the  adjacent  fertile  corner  of  Africa,  formed  a 
complex  but  connected  unit,  a  larger  hearth  in  which  culture 
was  glowing  at  a  number  of  points.  It  merely  happened  that 


442 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


a  little  upstream  from  the  mouths  of  the  Nile  and  of  the 
Euphrates  the  development  flamed  up  faster  during  the  fifth 
and  fourth  millenia.  The  causes  can  only  be  conjectured. 
Perhaps  when  agriculture  came  to  he  systematically  instead  of 
casually  conducted,  these  annually  overflowed  bottom  lands 
proved  unusually  favorable;  their  population  grew,  necessitat¬ 
ing  fixed  government  and  social  order,  which  in  turn  enabled 
a  still  more  rapid  growth  of  numbers,  the  fuller  exploitation  of 
resources,  and  division  of  labor.  This  looks  plausible  enough. 
But  too  much  weight  should  not  be  attached  to  explanations  of 
this  sort:  they  remain  chiefly  hypothetical.  That  culture  had 
however  by  3000  B.C.  attained  a  greater  richness  and  organi¬ 
zation  in  Egypt  and  in  the  Babylonian  region  than  elsewhere, 
are  facts,  and  can  hardly  be  anything  but  causally  connected 
facts.  These  two  civilizations  had  evidently  arisen  out  of  a 
common  Near  Eastern  high  level  of  Neolithic  culture,  much  as 
the  peaks  of  Mexico  and  Peru  arose  above  the  plateau  of  Middle 
American  culture  in  which  they  were  grounded. 

Of  course  this  means  that  Egypt  and  Sumer  did  not  stand 
in  parental-filial  relation.  They  were  rather  collateral  kin — 
brothers,  or  better,  perhaps,  the  two  most  eminent  of  a  group 
of  cousins.  Attempts  to  derive  Egyptian  hieroglyphic  from 
Babylonian  Cuneiform  writing,  and  vice  versa,  have  been  re¬ 
jected  as  unproved  by  the  majority  of  unbiased  scholars.  But 
it  is  likely  that  at  least  the  idea  of  making  legible  records,  of 
using  pictorial  signs  for  sounds  of  speech,  was  carried  from  one 
people  to  the  other,  which  thereupon  worked  out  its  own  sym¬ 
bols  and  meanings.  Just  so,  while  the  Phoenician  alphabet  has 
never  yet  been  led  back  to  either  Egyptian,  Cuneiform,  Cretan, 
or  Hittite  writing  with  enough  evidence  to  satisfy  more  than 
a  minority  fraction  of  the  world  of  scholarship,  it  seems  in¬ 
credible  that  this  new  form  of  writing  should  have  originated 
uninfluenced  by  any  of  the  several  systems  which  had  been  in 
current  use  in  the  near  neighborhood,  in  part  in  Phoenicia  itself, 
for  from  one  to  two  or  three  thousand  years.  Such  a  view  denies 
neither  the  essentially  new  element  in  Phoenician  script  nor  its 
cultural  importance.  It  does  not  consider  the  origin  of  the 
alphabet  explained  away  by  a  reference  to  another  and  earlier 
system  of  writing.  It  does  bring  the  alphabet  into  some  sort 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


443 


of  causal  relation  with  the  other  systems,  without  merging  it  in 
them.  It  is  along  lines  like  this  that  the  relation  of  early  Egypt 
and  Babylonia  to  each  other  and  to  the  other  cultures  of  the 
ancient  Near  East  must  be  conceived. 

240.  Predynastic  Egypt 

Egyptian  civilization  was  already  in  full  blown  flower  at  the 
time  of  the  consolidation  of  Lower  and  Upper  Egypt  under  the 
first  dynasty  in  the  thirty-fourth  century.  Its  developmental 
stages  must  have  reached  much  farther  back.  Hieroglyphic 
writing,  for  instance,  had  taken  on  substantially  the  forms  and 
degree  of  efficiency  which  it  maintained  for  the  next  three  thou¬ 
sand  years.  An  elaborate,  conventional  system  of  this  sort  must 
have  required  centuries  for  its  formative  stages.  A  non-lunar 
365-day  calendar  was  in  use.  This  was  easily  the  most  accurate 
and  effective  calendar  developed  in  the  ancient  world,  and  fur¬ 
nished  the  basis  of  our  own.  It  erred  by  the  few  hours’  differ¬ 
ence  between  the  solar  and  the  assumed  year.  This  difference 
the  Egyptians  did  not  correct  but  recorded,  with  the  result  that 
when  the  initial  day  had  slowly  swung  around  the  cycle  of  the 
seasons,  they  reckoned  a  “Sothic  year”  of  1,461  years.  One 
of  these  was  completed  in  2781;  which  gives  4241  B.C.  as  the 
date  of  the  fixing  of  the  calendar.  This  is  considered  the  earliest 
exactly  known  date  in  human  history.  Of  course,  a  calendar 
of  such  fineness  cannot  be  established  without  long  continued 
observations,  whose  duration  will  be  the  greater  for  lack  of 
astronomical  instruments.  Centuries  must  have  elapsed  while 
this  calendar  was  being  worked  out.  Nor  would  oral  tradition 
be  a  sufficient  vehicle  for  carrying  the  observations.  Permanent 
records  must  have  been  transmitted  from  generation  to  genera¬ 
tion;  and  these  presuppose  stability  of  society,  enduring  build¬ 
ings,  towns,  and  a  class  with  leisure  to  devote  to  astronomical 
computations.  It  is  safe  therefore  to  set  4500  B.C.  as  the  time 
when  Egypt  had  emerged  from  a  tribal  or  rural  peasant  condi¬ 
tion  into  one  that  can  be  called  “civilized”  in  the  original  mean¬ 
ing  of  that  word:  a  period  of  city  states,  or  at  least  districts 
organized  under  recognized  rulers.  From  4500  on,  then,  is  the 
time  of  the  Predynastic  Local  Kingdoms. 


444 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


Beyond  this  time  there  must  lie  another:  the  Predynastic 
Tribal  period,  before  towns  or  calendars  or  writing  or  metal, 
when  pottery  was  being  made,  stone  ground,  boats  built,  plants 
and  animals  being  domesticated — the  typical  pure  Neolithic 
Age,  in  short.  Yet  with  all  its  prehistoric  wealth,  Egypt  has 
not  yet  produced  any  true  Neolithic  remains.  It  is  hardly  likely 
that  the  country  was  uninhabited  for  thousands  of  years ;  much 
more  probably  have  Neolithic  remains  been  obliterated.  This 
inference  is  strengthened  by  the  paucity  and  dubiousness  of 
Upper  Palaeolithic  artifacts  in  Egypt.  Lower  Palaeolithic  flint 
implements  are  abundant,  just  as  are  remains  from  the  whole 
of  the  period  of  metals.  What  has  happened  to  the  missing 
deposits  and  burials  of  the  Upper  Palaeolithic  and  Neolithic 
that  fell  between? 

Apparently  they  have  been  buried  on  the  floor  of  the  Nile 
valley  under  alluvial  deposits.  The  Eolithic  and  Lower  Palaeo¬ 
lithic  implements  are  found  on  the  plateau  through  which  the 
valley  stretches ;  also  cemented  into  conglomerate  formed  of 
gravel  and  stone  washed  down  from  this  plateau  and  cut  into 
terraces  by  the  Nile  "when  it  still  flowed  from  30  to  100  feet 
higher  than  at  present;  and  on  the  terraces.  Just  when  these 
terraces  were  formed,  it  is  difficult  to  say  in  terms  of  European 
Pleistocene  periods;  but  not  later  than  the  third  glacial  epoch, 
it  would  seem,  and  perhaps  as  early  as  the  second.  As  the  Chel- 
lean  of  Europe  is  put  after  the  third  glaciation  in  the  chro¬ 
nology  followed  in  this  book,  the  antiquity  of  the  first  flints  used, 
and  perhaps  deliberately  shaped,  in  Egypt,  is  carried  back  to 
an  extremely  high  antiquity  by  the  specimens  imbedded  in  the 
terrace  cliffs. 

About  the  time  of  the  last  glaciation — the  Mousterian  or  end 
of  the  Lower  Palaeolithic  in  Europe — the  Nile  ceased  cutting 
down  through  the  gravels  that  bordered  it  and  began  to  build 
up  its  bed  and  its  valley  with  a  deposit  of  mud  as  it  does  to-day. 
From  excavations  to  the  base  of  dated  monuments  it  is  known 
that  during  the  last  4,000  years  this  alluvium  lias  been  laid 
down  at  the  rate  of  a  foot  in  300  years  in  northern  Egypt.  As 
it  there  attains  a  depth  of  over  a  hundred  feet,  the  process  of 
deposition  is  indicated  as  having  begun  30,000  or  more  years 
ago.  Of  course  no  computation  of  this  sort  is  entirely  reliable 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


445 


because  various  factors  can  enter  to  change  the  rate ;  but  the 
probability  is  that,  other  things  equal,  the  deposition  would  have 
been  slower  at  first  than  of  late,  and  the  time  of  the  aggrading 
correspondingly  longer.  In  any  event  geologists  agree  that  their 
Recent — the  last  10.000  years  or  so — is  insufficient,  and  that  the 
deposition  of  the  floor  of  the  Nile  valley  must  have  begun  during 
what  in  Europe  was  part  of  the  Wurrn  glaciation. 

This  is  the  period  of  transition  from  Lower  to  Upper  Palaeo¬ 
lithic  (§  69,  70,  213)  in  Europe.  The  disappearance  of  Upper 
Palaeolithic  remains  in  Egypt  is  most  plausibly  explained  by  the 
fact  that  the  Upper  Palaeolithic,  just  as  later  the  Neolithic,  was 
indeed  represented  in  Egypt,  very  likely  flourishingly,  but  that 
in  the  mild  climate  its  artifacts  were  lost  or  interred  on  or  near 
the  surface  of  the  valley  itself  and  have  therefore  long  since 
been  covered  over  so  deep  that  only  future  lucky  accidents,  like 
well-soundings,  may  now  and  then  bring  a  specimen  to  light. 

For  the  Neolithic,  there  actually  are  such  discoveries:  bits 
of  pottery  brought  up  from  borings,  60  feet  deep  in  the  vicinity 
of  one  of  the  monuments  referred  to,  75  and  90  feet  deep  at 
other  points  in  lower  Egypt.  The  smallest  of  these  figures  com¬ 
putes  to  a  lapse  of  18,000  years — nearly  twice  as  long  as  the 
estimated  age  of  the  earliest  pottery  in  Europe.  It  is  always 
necessary  not  to  lay  too  much  reliance  on  durations  calculated 
solely  from  thickness  of  strata,  whether  these  are  geological  or 
culture-bearing.  But  in  this  case  general  probability  confirms, 
at  least  in  the  rough.  In  4000  B.C.,  when  Egypt  was  beginning 
to  use  copper,  western  Europe  was  still  in  its  first  phase  of  stone 
polishing ;  in  1500  B.C.,  when  Egypt  was  becoming  acquainted 
with  iron,  Europe  was  scarcely  yet  at  the  height  of  its  bronze 
industry.  If  the  fisher  folk  camped  on  their  oyster  shells  on 
the  Baltic  shores  were  able  to  make  pottery  by  8000  B.C.,  there 
is  nothing  staggering  in  the  suggestion  that  the  Egyptians  knew 
the  art  in  16,000  B.C.  They  have  had  writing  more  than  twice 
as  long  as  the  North  Europeans. 

The  dates  themselves,  then,  need  not  be  taken  too  literally. 
They  are  calculated  from  slender  even  though  impressive  evi¬ 
dence  and  subject  to  revision  by  perhaps  thousands  of  years. 
But  they  do  suggest  strongly  the  distinct  precedence  of  northern 
Africa,  and  by  implication  of  western  Asia,  over  Europe  in  the 


446 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


Neolithic,  as  precedence  is  clear  in  the  Bronze  and  early  Iron 
Ages  and  indicated  for  the  Lower  Palaeolithic. 

If,  accordingly,  the  beginning  of  the  Early  Neolithic — the  age 
of  pottery,  bow,  dog — be  set  for  Egypt  somewhere  around 
16,000  B.C.,  about  coeval  with  the  beginning  of  the  Magdalenian 
in  middle  western  Europe  (§215),  the  Full  Neolithic,  the  time 
of  first  domestication  of  animals  and  plants  and  polishing  of 
stone,  could  be  estimated  at  around  10,000  B.C.,  when  Europe 
was  still  lingering  in  its  epi-Paheolithic  phase  (§216).  One 
can  cut  away  several  thousand  years  and  retain  the  essential 
situation  unimpaired:  8000,  or  7000  B.C.,  still  leaves  Egypt  in 
the  van;  helps  to  explain  the  appearance  of  eastern  grains  and 
animals  in  Europe  around  6000-5000  B.C. and,  what  is  most 
to  the  point,  allows  a  sufficient  interval  for  agriculture  and  the 
allied  phases  of  civilization  to  have  reached  the  degree  of  de¬ 
velopment  which  they  display  when  the  Predynastic  Local 
Kingdoms  drift  into  our  vision  around  4500  B.C.  A  long  Full 
Neolithic,  then,  is  both  demanded  by  the  situation  in  Egypt 
and  indicated  by  such  facts  as  there  are ;  a  long  period  in  which 
millet,  barley,  split-wheat,  wheat,  flax,  cattle,  sheep,  and  asses 
were  gradually  modified  and  made  more  useful  by  breeding 
under  domestication.  This  Full  Neolithic,  or  its  last  portion, 
was  the  Predynastic  Tribal  Age  of  Egypt ;  which,  when  it  passed 
into  the  Predynastic  Local  Kingdoms  phase  about  4500  B.C., 
had  brought  these  plants  and  animals  substantially  to  their  mod¬ 
ern  forms,  and  had  increased  and  coordinated  the  population 
of  the  land  to  a  point  that  the  devising  of  calendar,  metallurgy, 
writing,  and  kingship  soon  followed. 

241.  Culture  Growth  in  Dynastic  Egypt 

The  story  of  the  growth  of  Egyptian  civilization  during  the 
Dynastic  or  historic  period  is  a  fascinating  one.  There  were 
three  phases  of  prosperity  and  splendor.  The  first  was  the  Old 
Kingdom,  3000-2500,  culminating  in  the  fourth  dynasty  of  the 
Great  Pyramid  builders,  in  the  twenty-ninth  century.  The 
second  was  the  Middle  or  Feudal  Kingdom,  with  its  climax  in 
the  twelfth  dynasty,  2000-1788.  After  the  invasion  of  the  Asiatic 
Hyksos  in  the  seventeenth  century,  the  New  Empire  of  the 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


447 


eighteenth  and  nineteenth  dynasties  arose,  whose  greatest  ex¬ 
tension  fell  in  the  reign  of  Thutmose  III,  1501-1447,  although 
the  country  retained  some  powers  of  offensive  for  a  couple  of 
centuries  longer.  There  followed  a  slow  nationalistic  decline,  a 
transient  seventh  century  conquest  by  Assyria,  a  brief  and  ficti¬ 
tious  renascence  supported  by  foreign  mercenaries,  and  the 
Persian  conquest  of  525  B.C.,  since  wrhich  time  Egypt  has  never 
been  an  independent  power  under  native  rulers.  A  waning  of 
cultural  energy,  at  least  relatively  to  other  peoples,  had  set  in 
before  the  military  decline.  By  1000  B.C.  certainly,  by  1500 
perhaps,  Egypt  was  receiving  more  elements  of  civilization  than 
she  was  imparting.  She  still  loomed  wealthy  and  refined  in 
contrast  with  younger  nations;  but  these  were  producing  more 
that  was  new. 

Copper  smelted  from  the  ores  of  the  Sinai  peninsula  had 
apparently  'come  into  use  by  4000,  but  remained  scarce  for  a 
long  time.  The  first  dynasty  had  some  low  grade  bronze;  by 
2500  bronze  containing  a  tenth  of  tin  was  in  use.  Iron  was 
introduced  about  1500  or  soon  after,  but  for  centuries  remained 
a  sparing  Asiatic  import.  In  fact,  the  conservatism  that  was 
settling  over  the  old  age  of  the  civilization  caused  it  to  cling 
with  unusual  tenacity  to  bronze.  As  late  as  Ptolemaic  and 
Roman  times,  when  the  graves  of  foreigners  abounded  in  iron, 
those  of  Egyptians  were  still  prevailingly  bronze  furnished. 

Quite  different  must  have  been  the  social  psychology  three 
thousand  years  earlier.  The  first  masonry  was  laid  in  place  of 
adobe  brick  to  line  tomb  walls  in  the  thirty-first  century;  and 
within  a  century  and  a  half  the  grandest  stone  architecture  in 
human  history  had  been  attained  in  the  Pyramid  of  Cheops. 
This  was  a  burst  of  cultural  energy  such  as  has  been  equalled 
only  in  the  rise  of  Greek  art  or  modern  science. 

Glass  making  seems  to  have  been  discovered  in  Egypt  in  the 
early  dynasties  and  to  have  spread  from  there  to  Syria  and  the 
Euphrates.  The  earliest  glass  was  colored  faience,  at  most  trans¬ 
lucent,  and  devoted  chiefly  to  jewelry,  or  to  surfacing  brick. 
Later  it  was  blown  into  vessels,  usually  small  bottles,  and  only 
gradually  attained  to  clearness.  Prom  western  Asia  the  art  was 
carried  to  Europe,  and,  in  Christian  times,  to  China,  which  at 
first  paid  gem  prices  for  glass  beads,  but  later  was  perhaps 


448 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


stimulated  by  knowledge  of  the  new  art  into  devising  porcelain 
— a  pottery  vitrified  through. 

The  horse  first  reached  Egypt  w7ith  the  Hyksos.  With  it  came 
the  war  chariot.  Wheeled  vehicles  seem  to  have  been  lacking 
previously.  The  alphabet,  the  arch,  the  zodiac,  coinage,  heavy 
metal  armor,  and  many  other  important  inventions  gained  no 
foot-hold  in  Egypt  until  after  the  country  had  definitely  passed 
under  foreign  domination.  The  superior  intensity  of  early 
Egyptian  civilization  had  evidently  fostered  a  spirit  of  cultural 
self-sufficiency,  analogous  to  that  of  China  or  Byzantine  Greece, 
which  produced  a  resistance  to  innovation  from  without.  At 
the  same  time,  inward  development  continued,  as  attested  by 
numerous  advances  in  religion,  literature,  dress,  the  arts,  and 
science  when  the  Old  Kingdom  and  New  Empire  are  compared. 
In  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  dynasties,  for  instance,  the  mon¬ 
archy  was  feudal ;  in  the  eighteenth  lived  the  famous  mono¬ 
theistic  iconoclastic  ruler  Ikhnaton. 

The  civilization  of  ancient  Egypt  w7as  wholly  produced  and 
carried  by  a  Hamitic-speaking  people.  This  people  has  some¬ 
times  been  thought  to  have  come  from  Asia,  but  its  Hamitic 
relatives  hold  Africa  from  Somaliland  to  Morocco  even  to-day, 
and  there  is  no  cogent  reason  to  look  for  its  ancestors  outside 
that  continent. 

242.  The  Sumerian  Development 

The  story  of  Babylonia  is  less  completely  known  than  that  of 
Egypt  because  as  a  rockless  land  it  was  forced  to  depend  on 
sun-dried  brick,  because  the  climate  is  less  arid,  and  also  because 
of  its  position.  Egypt  was  isolated  by  deserts,  Babylonia  open 
to  many  neighbors,  and  so  was  invaded,  fought  over,  and  never 
unified  as  long  as  Egypt.  The  civilization  was  therefore  never 
so  nationally  specific,  so  concentrated;  and  its  records,  though 
abundant,  are  patchy.  Babylonia,  the  region  of  the  lower 
Euphrates  and  Tigris,  was  the  leading  culture  center  of  Asia 
in  the  third  and  second  millenia  before  Christ ;  and  while  mostly 
a  Semitic  land  in  this  period,  its  civilization  was  the  product 
of  another  people,  the  Sumerians,  established  near  the  mouth 
of  the  two  rivers  in  the  fourth  millenium.  It  was  the  Sumerians 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


449 


who  in  this  thousand  years  worked  out  the  Cuneiform  or  wedge- 
shaped  system  of  writing — mixedly  phonetic  and  ideographic 
like  the  Egyptian,  but  of  wholly  different  values,  so  far  as  can 
be  told  to-day,  and  executed  in  straight  strokes  instead  of  the 
pictorial  forms  of  Hieroglyphic  or  the  cursive  ones  of  its  de¬ 
rivative  Hieratic.  It  was  the  Semites  who,  coming  in  from  the 
Arabian  region,  took  over  this  writing,  together  with  the  culture 
that  accompanied  it.  Their  dependence  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  they  used  characters  with  Sumerian  phonetic  values  as  well 
as  by  their  retention  of  Sumerian  as  a  sacred  language,  for 
which,  as  time  went  on,  they  were  compelled  to  compile  dic¬ 
tionaries,  to  the  easement  of  modern  archaeologists. 

Of  the  local  origins  of  this  Sumerian  city-state  civilization 
with  its  irrigation  and  intensive  agriculture,  nothing  is  known. 
It  kept  substantially  abreast  of  Egypt,  or  at  most  a  few  cen¬ 
turies  in  arrears.  In  certain  features,  as  the  use  of  metals,  it 
seems  to  have  been  in  advance.  Egypt  is  a  long-drawn  oasis 
stretched  through  a  great  desert.  Babylonia  lies  adjacent  to 
desert  and  highland,  steppe  and  mountains.  Within  a  range  of 
a  few  hundred  miles,  its  environment  is  far  more  varied.  Not 
only  copper  but  tin  is  said  to  have  been  available  among  neigh¬ 
boring  peoples.  So,  too,  Babylonia  is  likely  to  have  had  the 
early  domestic  animals — except  perhaps  cattle — earlier  than 
Egypt,  because  it  lay  nearer  to  what  seem  to  have  been  their 
native  habitats.  The  result  is  that  whereas  Egyptian  culture 
makes  the  superficial  impression  of  having  been  largely  evolved 
on  the  spot  by  the  Egyptians,  Sumerian  culture  already  prom¬ 
ises  to  resolve,  when  we  shall  know  it  better,  into  a  blend  to 
which  a  series  of  peoples  contributed  measurably.  The  role 
of  the  Sumerians,  like  that  of  their  Semitic  successors,  was  per¬ 
haps  primarily  that  of  organizers. 

243.  The  Sumerian  Hinterland 

There  are  some  evidences  of  these  cultures  previous  to  the 
Sumerian  one  or  coeval  with  it.  In  Elam,  the  foot-hill  country 
east  of  Sumer,  a  mound  at  Susa  contains  over  100  feht  of  culture¬ 
bearing  deposits ;  in  southern  Turkistan,  at  Anau,  300  miles  east 
of  the  Caspian  sea,  one  is  more  than  fifty  feet  deep.  The  date 


450 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


of  the  first  occupancy  of  these  sites  has  been  set,  largely  on  the 
basis  of  the  rate  of  accumulation  of  the  deposits — an  unsafe 
criterion — at  18,000  and  8000  B.C.  respectively.  These  dates, 
particularly  the  former,  are  surely  too  high.  But  a  remote 
antiquity  is  indicated.  Both  sites  show  adobe  brick  houses  and 
hand-made,  painted  pottery  at  the  very  bottom.  Susa  contains 
copper  implements  in  the  lowest  stratum;  Anau,  three-fourths 
wray  to  the  base — in  the  same  level  as  remains  of  sheep  and 
camels.  Still  lower  levels  at  Anau  yielded  remains  of  tamed 
cattle,  pigs,  and  goats,  while  wheat  and  barley  appear  at  the 
very  bottom,  before  domesticated  animals  were  kept.  Whatever 
the  date  of  the  introduction  of  copper  in  these  regions,  it  was 
very  likely  anterior  to  the  thirty-first  century,  when  bronze  was 
already  used  by  the  Sumerians.  These  excavations  therefore 
shed  light  on  the  Full  Neolithic  and  Eneolithic  or  Transition 
phases  of  west  Asiatic  culture  which  must  have  preceded  the 
Sumerian  civilization  known  to  us. 

The  languages  of  these  early  west  Asiatic  peoples  have  not 
been  classified.  Sumerian  was  non-Indo-European,  non-Semitic, 
non-Hamitic.  Some  have  thought  to  detect  Turkish,  that  is 
Ural-Altaic,  resemblances  in  it.  But  others  find  similarities  to 
modern  African  languages.  This  divergence  of  opinion  prob¬ 
ably  means  that  Sumerian  cannot  yet  be  safely  linked  with  any 
other  linguistic  group.  The  same  applies  to  Elamite,  which  is 
known  from  inscriptions  of  a  later  date  than  the  early  strata 
at  Susa.  What  the  Neolithic  and  Bronze  Age  people  of  Anau 
spoke  there  is  no  means  of  knowing.  The  region  at  present  is 
Turkish,  but  this  is  of  course  no  evidence  that  it  was  so  thou¬ 
sands  of  years  ago.  The  speech  of  the  region  might  conceivably 
have  been  Indo-European,  for  it  lies  at  the  foot  of  the  Persian 
plateau,  which  by  the  Iron  Age  was  occupied  by  the  Iranian 
branch  of  the  Indo-Europeans,  who  are  generally  thought  to 
have  entered  it  from  the  north  or  northwest.  But  again  there 
is  not  a  shred  of  positive  evidence  for  an  Indo-European  popu¬ 
lation  at  this  wholly  prehistoric  period.  The  one  thing  that  is 
clear  is  that  the  early  civilization  of  the  general  west  Asiatic 
area  was  not  ^developed  by  the  Semites  who  were  its  chief  car¬ 
riers  later.  This  is  a  situation  parallel  to  that  obtaining  in 
Europe  and  Asia  Minor,  whose  civilization  in  the  full  historic 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


451 


period  has  been  almost  wholly  in  the  hands  of  Indo-Europeans, 
whereas  at  the  dawn  of  history  the  nations  who  were  culturally 
in  the  lead,  the  Hittites,  Trojans,  Cretans,  Lydians,  Etruscans, 
and  Iberians,  were  all  non-Indo-European. 

244.  Entry  of  Semites  and  Indo-Europeans 

The  Semitic  invasions  seem  to  have  proceeded  from  the  great 
motherland  of  that  stock,  Arabia,  whose  deserts  and  half-deserts 
have  been  at  all  times  like  a  multiplying  hive.  Some  of  the 
movements  were  outright  conquests,  others  half-forceful  pene¬ 
trations,  still  others  infiltrations.  Several  great  waves  can  be 
distinguished.  About  3000  there  was  a  drift  which  brought  the 
Akkadians,  Sargon’s  people,  into  Babylonia,  perhaps  the  As¬ 
syrians  into  their  home  up  the  Tigris,  the  Canaanites  and  Phoeni¬ 
cians  into  the  Syrian  region.  About  2200  the  Amorites  flowed 
north :  into  Babylonia,  where  Babylon  now  sprang  up  and  the 
famous  lawgiver  Hammurabi  ruled;  into  Mesopotamia  proper; 
and  into  Syria.  Around  1400,  the  Aramaeans  gradually  occu¬ 
pied  the  Syrian  district,  and  the  Hebrews  began  to  dispossess 
the  Canaanites.  Around  700  still  another  wave  brought  the 
Chaldaeans  into  Babylonia,  to  erect  a  great  Semitic  kingdom 
once  more — that  of  Nebuchadnezzar.  Then,  for  more  than  a 
thousand  years,  Arabia  lay  contained  within  herself,  dammed 
perhaps  by  the  Persian,  Macedonian,  Parthian,  and  Roman  em¬ 
pires,  until  in  the  seventh  century  after  Christ  Mohammedanism 
led  forth  her  peoples.  A  much  earlier  movement,  at  an  un¬ 
known  time,  had  brought  the  forefathers  of  the  Abyssinians 
across  the  mouth  of  the  Red  Sea  into  Africa,  and  the  Hyksos 
who  overthrew  the  Middle  Kingdom  of  ancient  Egypt  may  have 
been  Semites. 

The  Indo-Europeans  entered  southwest  Asia  later  and  per¬ 
meated  it  more  locally  than  the  Semites.  Soon  after  2000  the 
Kassites  or  Kossaeans  intruded  into  Babylonia  ;  they  seem  to 
have  been  Indo-Europeans,  perhaps  Iranians.  Around  1500  the 
Mitanni  were  a  power  on  the  upper  Euphrates  between  the  As¬ 
syrians  and  the  Hittites  of  Asia  Minor.  Their  personal  and 
god  names  as  preserved  in  Assyrian  Cuneiform  inscriptions 
show  them  to  have  been  an  Iranian  people.  The  latter  are  not 


452 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


recognizably  referred  to  in  their  permanent  home  on  the  Iranian 
plateau  until  about  1000,  but  may  well  have  settled  there  a  thou¬ 
sand  years  earlier.  Their  close  relatives,  the  Indie  branch,  are 
believed  to  have  begun  their  entry  of  India  about  2000-1500 
B.C.  or  soon  after. 

245.  Iranian  Peoples  and  Cultures 

By  the  seventh  century  B.C.,  the  Iranians  were  civilized  and 
strong  enough  to  participate  in  the  overthrow  of  Semitic  As¬ 
syria,  whose  principal  inheritors  they  became.  From  then  on 
for  over  twelve  hundred  years,  with  only  a  century  of  interrup¬ 
tion  due  to  Alexander  and  his  successors,  a  succession  of  Iranian 
powers  dominated  not  only  the  plateau  but  Babylonia  and  Meso¬ 
potamia  :  Medes,  Achsemenian  Persians,  Parthians,  Sassanian 
Persians.  A  strong  national  consciousness  was  evolved  and  re¬ 
inforced  bjr  a  national  religion — Zoroastrianism,  Magism,  Fire- 
worship,  the  Avestan  faith,  are  some  of  its  names.  This  Iranian 
religion  endured  nearly  three  thousand  years,  and  still  sur¬ 
vives  among  a  shrunken  number  of  followers,  notably  the  emi¬ 
grant  Parsis — that  is,  4 ‘Persians’ 7 — of  India;  and  its  basic  ideas 
of  the  eternal  conflict  of  good  and  evil,  truth  and  lie,  and  of  a 
single  supreme  deity  of  righteousness,  have  influenced  many 
other  cults,  including  Christianity.  The  long  contact  between 
Iran  and  the  Tigris-Euphrates  valley  and  their  frequent  po¬ 
litical  unity  since  600  B.C.  reacted  favorably  to  the  intensifi¬ 
cation  of  culture  in  the  highlands ;  with  the  result  that  when  the 
Arabs  and  later  the  Turks  broke  from  their  marginal  homes  into 
the  old  civilized  parts  of  western  Asia,  they  absorbed  heavily 
from  the  long  established  cultures  of  Iran.  Much  of  Arab  and 
Turkish  civilization  is  really  Persian,  and  goes  back  ultimately 
to  Semitic  Babylonian  and  Sumerian  origins. 

Soon  after  the  Iranians  pushed  southward  out  of  the  steppe 
on  to  the  plateau  east  of  the  Caspian,  other  Indo-Europeans 
drove  southward  west  of  the  Caspian  and  Black  Sea ;  the  Ar¬ 
menians  into  the  seats  which  they  have  held  ever  since,  the 
Kardouchoi  into  the  Kurd  country,  tribes  allied  to  the  Balkan 
Thracians  and  the  Phrygians  into  Asia  Minor.  The  centuries 
before  and  after  1000  B.C.  were  the  period  of  these  movements, 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


453 


all  of  which  failed  to  penetrate  as  deeply  into  the  heart  of  the 
west  Asiatic  cultural  center  as  had  the  Semitic  inflows.  Nor 
was  the  Indo-Europeanization  of  all  the  newly  occupied  terri¬ 
tories  as  permanent  as  the  corresponding  Semitization.  Asia 
Minor,  which  is  now  prevailingly  Turkish,  is  the  one  area  of 
consequence  that  in  the  historic  period  has  been  de-Indo- 
Europeanized  in  speech  (§50). 

246.  The  Composite  Culture  of  the  Near  East 

In  this  western  end  of  Asia,  then,  from  the  Hellespont  to 
Persia  and  from  the  Caucasus  to  the  Arabian  desert,  beginning 
five  thousand  years  ago  and  probably  more,  a  motley  of  nations 
was  thrown  together — autochthonous  peoples  of  several  sorts, 
Semites,  Indo-Europeans,  possibly  Ural-Altaians.  Their  con¬ 
tacts  enabled  each  to  acquire  many  of  the  new  devices  developed 
by  the  others,  to  combine  these  with  their  own  attainments,  and 
thus  to  be  a  source  of  culture  stimulation  over  again  for  the 
others.  The  largest  tract  of  rich  lowland  in  the  area  was  the 
Fertile  Crescent  which  bowed  from  Jerusalem  northward  and 
eastward  into  Mesopotamia  and  then  down  the  course  of  the 
Tigris  and  Euphrates  to  their  mouths,  and  here,  for  several  mil- 
lenia,  civilization  tended  to  advance  most  intensively.  Within 
this  Crescent,  again,  its  southeastern  end,  the  drainable  and 
irrigable  alluvial  plain  of  Babylonia,  averaged  in  the  lead  from 
the  earliest  known  Sumerian  times  until  shortly  before  the 
Christian  era.  Yet  political  dominance  often  shifted  elsewhere: 
to  Egypt,  which  conquered  to  the  Euphrates  in  the  fifteenth 
century  B.C. ;  to  the  Hittites  of  Asia  Minor  in  the  fourteenth 
and  thirteenth ;  to  the  Assyrians  of  the  middle  Tigris  in  the 
twelfth  and  eleventh  and  again  in  the  eighth  and  seventh  cen¬ 
turies.  Culturally,  too,  almost  every  one  of  the  many  nations 
or  tracts  comprised  within  the  west  Asiatic  area  developed  a 
degree  of  independence ;  each  added  features  or  modified  those 
which  it  borrowed;  each  gave  to  its  local  civilization  a  cast  of 
its  own,  without  losing  touch  with  the  others. 


454  ANTHROPOLOGY 

247.  Phoenicians,  Aramaeans,  Hebrews 

Thus,  the  Phoenicians,  or  some  Semitic  people  closely  related 
and  geographically  near  them,  by  1000  B.C.  developed,  pre¬ 
sumably  out  of  one  of  the  several  part-phonetic  or  syllabic  writ¬ 
ings  in  use  about  or  among  them,  the  true  alphabet  (§134). 
In  the  two  or  three  centuries  following,  they  established  a  com¬ 
mercial  and  maritime  supremacy  over  the  Mediterranean  that 
led  to  the  founding  of  Carthage,  direct  trade  as  far  as  Spain  and 
indirect  to  Britain,  and  transmission  of  the  alphabet  and  other 
knowledge  to  the  Greeks. 

Another  trading  people,  although  an  inland  one,  were  the 
Aramaeans,  Semites  of  the  same  wave  as  the  Hebrews  but  estab¬ 
lished  north  of  Palestine  in  Syria,  with  Damascus  as  their 
greatest  center.  Never  more  than  a  secondary  political  power, 
they  penetrated  other  countries  peacefully,  brought  in  their 
system  of  measures  and  weights,  their  writing,  and  even  their 
language.  Assyria  had  become  half  Aramaic  speaking  by  the 
time  of  her  fall,  and  the  every-day  language  of  Palestine  in  the 
days  of  Jesus  and  for  some  centuries  before  was  Aramaic. 
Aramaean  script,  a  cursive  form  of  the  Phoenician  alphabet, 
gradually  replaced  Cuneiform  writing,  first  for  business  and 
then  for  official  purposes,  throughout  western  Asia  and  beyond. 
In  the  fourteenth  century,  the  Syrian  and  Palestinian  city 
rulers  had  written  their  reports  and  dispatches  to  the  Egyptian 
overlord  in  Cuneiform,  which  a  corps  of  clerks  in  the  Foreign 
Office  or  Dependencies  Department  at  Tell-el-Amarna  trans¬ 
cribed  into  Hieroglyphic  or  Hieratic.  In  the  fourth  century, 
Persian  officials  were  employing  Aramaean  for  official  communi¬ 
cations.  As  the  Cuneiform  more  and  more  died  out,  derivatives 
of  Aramaean  became  the  alphabets  of  Persia;  of  at  least  part 
and  possibly  the  whole  of  India;  of  the  Jews;  of  the  Arabs; 
of  the  Nestorian  Christians ;  and  of  the  ancient  Turks,  the 
Mongols,  and  the  Manchus.  Practically  all  Asia  except  perhaps 
India,  so  far  as  it  writes  alphabetically,  thus  derives  its  letters 
from  an  Aramaean  source  (§  146). 

Equally  profound  was  the  influence  of  the  neighboring  He¬ 
brews  in  another  phase  of  civilization.  At  the  time  they  first 
entered  history,  about  1400  B.C.,  the  Hebrews  worshiped  a  tribal 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY  455 

god  Jahveh.  They  believed  that  there  were  many  gods  beside 
him,  but  that  they  were  his  people  and  he  their  god.  A  growing 
national  consciousness  led  them  more  and  more  to  emphasize  the 
special  relation  between  him  and  them,  to  the  exclusion  of  wor¬ 
ship  of  other  deities  which  was  constantly  creeping  in  from 
their  Canaanite,  Phoenician,  Aramaean,  and  Egyptian  neighbors. 
Thus  they  grew  into  the  stage  of  monolatry,  or  worship  limited 
to  one  god.  As  however  Assyria  and  Babylonia  first  threatened 
and  then  engulfed  them,  and  their  national  impotence  became 
more  and  more  evident,  they  confided  less  in  themselves,  as  they 
had  done  in  the  brief  days  of  their  little  tenth  century  glory, 
and  trusted  increasingly  in  their  god  as  their  salvation.  National 
hopes  fell  and  divine  ones  rose ;  until  the  Hebrew  people  passed 
from  thinking  of  the  Lord  as  all  powerful  to  thinking  of  him 
as  one  and  sole :  monotheism  had  evolved  out  of  monolatry  as 
this  had  grown  out  of  a  special  tribal  cult.  Historically  the 
monotheistic  idea  was  not  new.  Ikhnaton  of  Egypt  had  pro¬ 
claimed  it  more  than  half  a  thousand  years  before  the  Hebrew 
prophets.  The  concept  may  actually  have  been  carried  over; 
but  it  certainly  drew  sustenance  of  its  own  on  Hebrew  soil  and 
first  became  established  there  as  a  cardinal,  enduring  element 
of  a  national  civilization.  The  Hebrews  adhered  to  monotheism 
with  an  ever-increasing  insistence ;  until  the  concept  was  taken 
over  by  Christianity  and  Islam — two  of  the  three  great  inter¬ 
national  religions;  Buddhism,  the  third,  being  essentially  athe¬ 
istic.  Here  then  is  another  tremendously  spread  cultural  ele¬ 
ment  of  deep  significance  that  originated  as  a  local  west  Asiatic 
variant. 

248.  Other  Contributing  Nationalities 

Almost  every  people  in  the  area,  in  fact,  made  its  special 
contribution.  In  Asia  Minor  evolved  the  concept  of  a  great 
primal  mother  goddess,  known  to  the  Greeks  as  Cybele.  Lydia, 
in  western  Asia  Minor,  coined  the  earliest  money  about  700 
B.C.  Some  people  near  the  Black  Sea  in  eastern  Asia  Minor 
seem  to  have  been  the  first  to  develop  the  working  of  iron  and 
perhaps  of  steel.  The  Kassites  from  the  north  or  east  probably 
introduced  the  horse  into  Babylonia,  soon  after  2000  B.C. 


456 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


Thence  it  spread,  as  the  animal  of  royalty,  aristocracy,  and  the 
special  arm  of  chariot  warfare,  until  it  reached  Egypt  some 
three  hundred  years  later.  The  first  domestication  of  the  horse 
was  apparently  in  central  Asia ;  the  transmission  to  Europe  may 
have  been  direct  rather  than  through  Mediterranean  Asia.  The 
camel  had  been  tamed  earlier,  also  in  central  Asia.  Its  remains 
appear  in  Turkistan  in  the  copper  period ;  and  in  Israel  the 
Arab  Midianite  raiders  whom  Gideon  defeated  rode  camels, 
while  some  generations  later,  in  David’s  time,  about  1000  B.C., 
horses  were  still  scarce. 

249.  ^Egean  Civilization 

On  the  island  of  Crete,  almost  equidistant  from  Asia,  Africa, 
and  Europe,  there  began  to  grow  up  with  the  introduction  of 
bronze,  about  3000  B.C.,  a  civilization  most  of  whose  elements 
were  imported,  but  which  added  to  them  and  molded  the  whole 
of  its  mass  with  unusual  originality.  Three  great  periods,  named 
the  Early,  Middle,  and  Late  “Minoan”  after  the  legendary 
Cretan  king  Minos,  are  distinguishable  in  the  abundant  remains 
which  excavation  has  brought  to  light;  each  of  these  is  divisible 
into  three  sub-periods  designated  I,  II,  III.  At  some  sites,  such 
as  Knossos,  the  remains  of  successive  sub-periods  are  separated 
by  layers  of  packed-down  earth  deposited  when  an  old  settle¬ 
ment  was  obliterated  and  serving  as  floor  for  the  next  occu¬ 
pation.  Underneath  the  Bronze  Age  deposits  were  thick  strata 
from  the  Neolithic,  with  unpainted  pottery.  With  the  Early 
Minoan,  about  3000  B.C.,  painted  pottery  as  well  as  bronze 
came  in,  to  be  followed  by  the  potter’s  wheel  and  a  system  of 
hieroglyphic  writing  unrelated  to  the  Egyptian.  In  the  Middle 
Minoan  the  pottery  became  polychrome,  palaces  were  built,  art 
took  a  remarkable  naturalistic  turn  in  pottery  and  fresco  paint¬ 
ing  and  carving,  and  the  hieroglyphics  evolved  into  a  linear, 
probably  syllabic,  script.  The  beginning  of  the  Late  Minoan, 
from  the  sixteenth  to  the  fourteenth  century  B.C.,  saw  the  cul¬ 
mination  of  Cretan  civilization.  Then  something  violent  hap¬ 
pened,  the  palaces  were  destroyed,  and  after  a  brief  decadence 
Minoan  culture  passed  out  at  the  arrival  of  the  first  of  the  his¬ 
toric  Greeks,  at  the  opening  of  the  Iron  Age,  about  1250  B.C. 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


457  , 


The  Minoans  left  no  chronology  of  their  own  and  their  writing 
is  unread.  But  datable  Egyptian  objects  found  in  Cretan  strata 
of  identified  period,  and  Cretan  objects  characteristic  of  par¬ 
ticular  periods  found  at  datable  Egyptian  sites  as  the  result  of 
trade,  have  made  possible  an  indirect  but  positive  chronology 
for  Minoan  culture.  The  second  sub-periods  of  Early,  Middle, 
and  Late  Minoan  respectively  were  contemporary  with  the 
Sixth,  Twelfth,  and  Eighteenth  Dynasties  on  the  Nile.  From 
2000  B.C.  on,  Minoan  dates  are  therefore  reliable  within  a  cen¬ 
tury  and  sometimes  less.  Industry,  commerce,  games,  a  light, 
practical  style  of  architecture,  above  all  a  graceful  realistic  art, 
flourished  particularly  from  Middle  Minoan  III  to  Late  Minoan 
II.  There  was  evidently  considerable  wealth,  a  leisure  class, 
and  life  was  prevailingly  peaceful  and  surrounded  with  charm. 

The  Minoans  were  a  Caucasian  people  of  Mediterranean  race. 
Their  language  is  unknown,  but  seems  to  have  been  distinct  from 
the  later  Greek,  and  therefore  probably  non-Indo-European. 
When  their  home  power  crumbled,  a  fragment  appears  to  have 
taken  refuge  in  Asia  and  founded  the  Philistine  cities  which 
for  a  time  pressed  the  tribal  Hebrews  and  which  gave  their 
name  to  Palestine. 

A  related  culture  appears  in  the  ruins  of  the  successive  cities 
of  Troy ;  on  the  islands  of  the  Aegean  Sea ;  and  in  mainland 
Greece,  where  it  has  been  called  Mycenaean,  after  the  citadel  and 
town  attributed  to  Agamemnon.  iEgean  perhaps  is  the  name 
least  likely  to  confuse,  for  this  larger  culture  of  which  the  Cretan 
Minoan  was  long  the  most  illustrious  representative.  The  table 
outlines  the  principal  correlations. 

The  thirteenth  century  brought  the  Greeks,  then  a  rude, 
hardy,  and  at  first  non-maritime  people,  fighting  their  way  south 
and  wrecking  or  sapping  the  iEgean  civilization.  Culture  lost 
its  bloom,  life  became  hard,  the  outlook  contracted.  Art  shriv¬ 
eled  into  crude  geometric  ornamentation,  the  forms  became 
childishly  inept,  intercourse  with  the  Orient  sank  to  a  minimum, 
and  when  trade  and  foreign  stimulation  revived  they  were  at 
first  in  Phoenician  hands.  It  is  not  until  the  seventh  century 
that  true  history  begins  in  Greece,  and  in  the  main  only  to  the 
sixth  that  the  rudiments  of  that  characteristic  Hellenic  phi¬ 
losophy,  literature,  and  art  can  be  traced,  which  were  released 


458 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


1250 


1600 


2000 


3000 


EGYPT  CRETE  GREECE 


Dipylon  Pottery 


Iron 

Dynasty  XIX, 
1350 
Amenhotep  IV, 
1375 


Geometric  Orna¬ 
ment 

Iron 


Late  Minoan  III 


Destruction  of 
Palaces 


Late  Minoan  II 


Geometric  Orna¬ 
ment 

Iron 


Late  Mycen^san 


Palaces 
Domed  Tombs 
Middle  Myce- 


Thutmose  III, 
1501 

Dynasty  XVIII, 
1580 


Hyksos,  1675 


Dynasty  XII 
ends,  1788 


Dynasty  XII, 
2000 


N2EAN 

\ 


Late  Minoan  I 


New  Palaces 
Linear  Script 
Naturalistic 
Art 

Middle  Minoan 
III 

First  Palaces 


Early 
*  Mycenaean 


Middle  Minoan 

II 

Polychrome 

Pottery 

Middle  Minoan  I 


Early  Minoan 

III 

Hieroglyphic 
Writing 
Potter’s  Wheel 


Dynasty  VI 


Pyramids 
Dynasties  III-V, 
2900 


Early  Minoan 
II 

Early  Minoan  I 
Painted  Pot¬ 
tery 


Bronze 


Bronze 


Low-tin  Bronze 
Dynasties  I-II, 
3400 


Copper 


No  Stone 
Structures 
Incised  Pottery 

Neolithic 


Stone  Struc¬ 
tures 

Painted  Pot¬ 
tery 

Neolithic 


ASIA 


First  Assyrian 
Empire 


Philistines 


Troy,  Cities  VI, 

VII 


Hittites 


Hebrews  enter 
Palestine 

Iron 

Mitanni 


Ivassites 

Horse 


Hammurabi 
Babylon  founded 


Potter’s  Wheel 
Cyclopean 
Walls 

Troy,  City  II 
Bronze 


Sargon  of  Akkad 
Troy,  City  I 
(copper) 


Sumerian  Cities 
Bronze 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


459 


after  the  Persian  wars  early  in  the  fifth  century.  Yet  the  half 
thousand  and  more  years  of  dark  ages  between  iEgean  and 
classic  Greek  civilization  did  not  entail  a  complete  interruption. 
The  Greek  often  enough  smote  the  Mycemean  or  Minoan.  More 
often,  perhaps,  he  settled  alongside  him,  possibly  oppressed  him, 
but  learned  from  him.  He  choked  out  iEgean  culture,  but 
nourished  his  own  upon  it.  The  Homeric  poems,  composed  in 
Greek  during  this  period  of  retrogression,  picture  a  civilization 
essentially  iEgean;  and  along  with  them  much  other  cultural 
tradition  must  have  been  passed  on. 

At  any  rate,  when  Greek  culture  reemerged,  it  was  charged 
with  Oriental  elements  and  influences,  but  perhaps  even  more 
charged  with  iEgean  ones.  Its  games,  its  unponderous  archi¬ 
tecture,  its  open  city  life,  the  free  quality  of  its  art,  its  political 
particularity,  its  peculiar  alert  tenseness  and  feeling  for  grace, 
had  all  flourished  before  on  Greek  soil.  Their  flavor  is  un- 
Asiatic  and  un-Egyptian  of  whatever  period.  We  have  here 
another  instance  of  the  tenacity  of  the  attachment  of  cultural 
qualities  to  the  soil;  of  the  faculty,  at  once  absorptive  and  re¬ 
sistive,  that  for  thousands  of  years,  however  inventions  might 
diffuse  and  culture  elements  circulate,  succeeded  in  keeping 
China  something  that  can  fairly  be  called  Chinese,  India  Indian, 
Egypt  Egyptian,  the  Northwest  and  Southwest  of  America 
Northwestern  and  Southwestern  respectively;  in  a  degree  even 
kept  Europe,  so  long  culturally  dependent  on  the  Orient,  always 
European. 


250.  Europe 

With  Greece  we  have  entered  the  realm  of  what  is  conven¬ 
tionally  regarded  ^s  history.  For  the  rest  of  Europe,  prehistoric 
archaeology  and  its  record  of  illiterate  peoples  abut  so  closely 
on  history  in  the  ordinary  sense,  that  a  tracing  of  the  transition 
takes  one  promptly  into  documentary  study.  There  is  much  in 
this  early  historical  field  that  is  of  anthropological  interest,  and 
just  back  of  it  lies  more  that  is  specifically  so :  where  the  round 
headed  peoples  came  from  who  began  to  appear  in  Europe  dur¬ 
ing  the  Neolithic ;  whether  peoples  like  Ligurians,  Sicilians, 
Scythians,  were  Indo-Europeans  or  not,  and  of  what  branch; 


460 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


where  the  blond  Nordic  type  took  shape  and  whether  it  origi¬ 
nally  spoke  dialects  of  the  Germanic  group ;  who  built  Stone¬ 
henge  and  the  other  megalithic  monuments  of  western  Europe; 
where  the  first  home  of  the  Indo-Europeans  lay.  But  such 
problems  are  intricate,  and  usually  answerable,  if  at  all,  from 
stray  indications  scattered  among  masses  of  literary  and  his¬ 
torical  data  controllable  only  by  the  specialist,  whose  primary 
interests  tend  in  other  directions.  Where  these  documented 
indications  fail,  the  problems  become  speculative.  We  have  no 
clear  record  of  any  indubitable  Indo-European  people,  in  or  out 
of  Europe,  before  the  second  millenium  B.C.  When  they  appear 
in  history,  they  are  already  differentiated  into  their  familiar 
main  divisions.  The  Bronze  Age  Scandinavians  seem  likely  to 
have  been  Indo-Europeans  and  perhaps  of  the  Germanic 
branch;  for  the  Neolithic  an  identification  would  be  mere  guess¬ 
ing.  The  LaTene  Iron  culture  is  characteristically  Keltic,  that 
of  the  Hallstadt  period  and  area  less  certainly  Illyrian  and 
Keltic.  And  after  all,  such  considerations  concern  speech,  or 
race,  which  can  be  associated  with  any  culture.  Our  present 
concern  being  primarily  with  the  latter,  it  will  be  more  profit¬ 
able  to  pass  on  from  these  questions  and  turn  to  regions  remote 
from  those  in  which  Occidental  civilization  assumed  its  modern 
form. 


251.  China 

China,  far  from  Europe  and  known  to  the  outside  world  only 
recently,  possesses  a  civilization  so  different  from  ours  in  a 
multitude  of  aspects,  that  thought  of  connection  between  the 
cultures  seems  at  first  unreasonable.  One  thinks  of  rice,  pagodas, 
bound  feet,  queues,  silk,  tea,  ancestor  worship,  a  strange,  chopped, 
singing  speech,  and  writing  in  still  stranger  characters.  Yet 
the  Chinese  have  long  had  a  civilization  identical  in  many  of 
its  constituents  with  our  own :  civil  government,  rimed  poetry, 
painting,  trousers,  wheat  and  barley,  our  common  domestic  ani¬ 
mals,  bronze  and  iron,  for  instance.  Since  most  of  these  culture 
elements  are  wanting  in  Africa  and  Oceania,  as  well  as  in  native 
America,  there  is  no  inherent  reason  why  they  should  be  ex¬ 
pectable  in  China.  Their  repetition  in  China  and  in  the  West 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


461 


as  the  result  of  independent  causes  would  be  remarkable.  Evi¬ 
dently  many  if  not  all  of  this  group  of  common  traits  represent 
absorptions  into  the  civilization  of  China,  or  diffusions  out  of 
it  into  the  West,  much  as  the  larger  part  of  early  European 
civilization  was  imported  out  of  the  nearer  Orient. 

In  the  broader  perspective  of  culture  history,  then,  China  no 
longer  stands  aloof.  The  roots  of  her  civilization  are  largely  the 
same  as  those  of  our  own.  In  this  light,  understanding  of  Chi¬ 
nese  civilization  involves  two  steps.  The  first  is  the  tracing  of 
the  elements  derived  from  the  west  or  imparted  to  it.  The 
second  is  the  recognition  of  how  these  were  remodeled  and  com¬ 
bined  with  elements  of  local  growth  and  thereby  given  their 
peculiarly  Chinese  cast  and  setting. 

Authentic  historical  records  of  China  go  back  only  three  thou¬ 
sand  years,  and  her  archaeology  is  little  known.  Beyond  the 
beginning  of  the  Chou  dynasty,  about  1100  B.C.,  or  more  exactly, 
beyond  a  point  when  this  dynasty  was  about  three  centuries  old, 
in  827  B.C.,  the  Chinese  possess  only  legendary  history,  in  which 
slight  strands  of  fact  are  interwoven  with  fabricated  or  fabulous 
constituents.  Then,  too,  the  Chinese  have  long  been  genuinely 
more  advanced  than  their  neighbors,  than  all  of  their  world,  in 
fact ;  with  the  result  that  they  could  hardly  escape  the  convic¬ 
tion  of  their  own  superiority  and  self-sufficiency,  and  the  belief 
that  they  had  devised  almost  everything  in  their  own  culture. 
This  presumption  led  to  the  conscientious  manufacture  by  na¬ 
tive  historians  of  dates  for  inventions  which  were  really  made 
outside  of  China. 

Beginning,  then,  in  the  ninth  century  B.C.,  we  find  the  Chi¬ 
nese  a  settled  and  populous  people  in  the  lower  valley  of  the 
great  Yellow  river,  in  what  is  now  the  northeastern  corner  of 
the  “Eighteen  Provinces’ ’  or  China  proper,  from  about  Si-an-fu 
to  Peking.  They  may  have  come  from  middle  Asia  or  still 
farther  west  by  a  national  migration,  as  has  sometimes  been  con¬ 
jectured:  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  they  did,  and  a  great 
deal  to  suggest  that  they  had  lived  in  or  near  their  seats  of  that 
period  long  before.  It  is  difficult  to  imagine  that  the  Chinese 
could  have  moved  out  of  central  Asia  without  leaving  a  part 
of  their  number  behind,  or  without  leaving  conspicuous  traces 
of  their  culture  among  their  former  neighbors.  Of  this  there  is 


462 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


no  evidence.  For  one  of  the  most  advanced  peoples  of  its  time 
to  remove  itself  and  its  civilization  complete  and  unimpaired 
would  be  without  parallel  in  history,  and  indeed  is  inconceivable 
as  soon  as  one  turns  from  the  vague  idea  to  face  specific  details 
of  the  process. 

Nevertheless  the  Chinese  as  we  first  know  them  had  the  prin¬ 
cipal  grains  and  tamed  animals,  the  metals  and  plow  and  wheel 
of  contemporary  Eastern  Asia  and  Europe.  While  it  is  scarcely 
thinkable  that  this  great  complex  of  culture  traits  should  not 
have  been  due  to  connections  with  the  west,  there  is  every  proba¬ 
bility  that  these  connections  were  of  the  sort  that  have  been 
traced  so  frequently  in  foregoing  pages:  diffusions  unaccom¬ 
panied  by  populational  drifts,  or  at  least  in  the  main  inde¬ 
pendent  of  them.  When  it  is  recalled  that  western  Turkistan 
held  cereal-growing  and  animal-raising  inhabitants  far  back  in 
the  Neolithic,  and  that  the  Bronze  period  is  definitely  repre¬ 
sented  in  Siberia,1  such  transmission  will  not  seem  far  fetched. 
It  is  also  well  to  remember  that  all  through  the  historic  period 
central  Asia  contained  farming  populations,  cities,  traders,  and 
skilled  artisans,  some  measure  of  which  evidences  of  higher  cul¬ 
ture  it  is  only  necessary  to  project  a  few  thousand  years  back¬ 
ward  to  complete  the  link  in  the  cultural  chain  between  China 
and  the  west.  We  tend  to  overlook  this  fact  because  it  is  the 
transient  Hun  and  Mongol  invasions  that  chiefly  obtrude  into 
both  western  and  Chinese  history.  Whenever  the  nomads  ceased 
boiling  over,  they  receded  from  the  historians’  view.  Obviously 
they  could  not  have  migrated  and  fought  and  burnt  and  slain 
among  each  other  continuously.  The  more  settled  life  at  home, 
which  they  led  most  of  the  time,  and  into  which  they  were 
always  inclined  to  take  over  the  religion,  writing,  and  arts  of 
the  Orient,  India  and  China,  is  the  phase  of  their  existence 
most  likely  to  be  overlooked,  but  which,  from  the  point  of 

i  A  Uralic  Bronze  Age  culture-area  is  recognizable  as  stretching  with 
considerable  uniformity  from  the  Dniepr  in  southwestern  Russia  to  Lake 
Baikal  in  the  latitude  of  eastern  Mongolia,  and  centering  about  Minusinsk 
on  the  upper  Yenisei.  It  possessed  horse  trappings,  an  abundance  of  sickles 
that  argue  a  population  primarily  agricultural,  and  socketed  axes  related 
to  the  type  that  occurred  in  western  Europe  between  about  1400  and  1000 
B.C.  This  bronze  culture  shows  definite  resemblances  on  the  one  hand  to 
that  of  the  Danubian  area — and,  it  may  be  added,  of  the  Caucasus;  on 
the  other,  to  the  ancient  bronzes  of  China. 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


463 


view  of  the  history  of  civilization,  is  far  more  important  than 
their  evanescent  conquests.  In  this  underlying  phase  they  were 
the  connectors  of  Near  and  Far  East. 

It  is  interesting  in  this  connection  that  so  far  as  more  recent 
transmissions  between  China  and  the  west  are  datable  or  posi¬ 
tively  traceable,  they  took  place  chiefly  by  the  long  land  route 
through  central  Asia.  The  first  trade  between  the  Roman  em¬ 
pire  and  China  of  the  Han  dynasty  was  overland ;  so  was  the 
introduction  of  Buddhism  and  cotton  from  India.  In  each  case 
sea  communication  came  later.  It  was  scarcely  before  Moham¬ 
medan  times  that  ocean  trade  between  China  and  the  west  be¬ 
came  important. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Chinese  and  other  east  Asiatics  always 
lacked,  and  still  lack,  several  aspects  of  the  grain-cattle-horse- 
wheel-metals  cluster  that  are  very  ancient  and  practically  uni¬ 
versal  in  Europe,  the  Near  East,  and  even  central  Asia.  They 
do  not  use  milk  or  its  products,  wool,  nor  bread-leaven.  It  has 
been  suggested  that  the  cluster  was  transmitted  to  China  before 
these  traits  had  been  added  to  it ;  and  that  when  they  finally 
might  have  reached  China,  they  found  its  people  satisfactorily 
established  in  a  culture  containing  substitutes  for  these  traits, 
and  therefore  resistive  to  them. 

It  is  significant  that  even  to-day  northern  China,  within  which 
the  oldest  known  China  lay,  still  cultivates  wheat,  barley,  and 
millet,  and  breeds  cattle,  horses,  sheep,  goats,  and  swine,  as  did 
the  Swiss  lake-dwellers;  whereas  in  southern  China  the  typical 
grain  and  animal  are  rice  and  the  buffalo,  as  in  Indo-China  and 
Malaysia.  There  are  evidently  two  fundamentally  distinct  eco¬ 
nomic  systems  here,  characteristic  respectively  of  Europe  and 
west  and  north  Asia,  and  of  southeastern  Asia ;  and  evolving 
in  the  main  independently.  The  first  civilized  China,  that  of 
the  Chou  period,  that  which  produced  Confucius  as  its  literary 
standardize^  and  has  chiefly  shaped  Chinese  traditions  and  in¬ 
stitutions  ever  since,  belonged  to  the  great  northern  and  western 
cycle;  was  in  fact  its  easternmost  outpost. 

This  brings  up  the  question  whether  Chinese  writing  could 
not  also  have  sprung  from  a  western  source,  notably  the 
Sumerian  Cuneiform,  which  it  superficially  resembles  in  its 
linear,  non-pictorial  strokes,  and  in  its  mixed  ideographic- 


464 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


phonetic  method.  The  connection  has  indeed  been  asserted,  but 
no  satisfactory  evidence  of  specific  correspondences  has  been 
adduced.  The  most  that  it  seems  valid  to  maintain  is  that  a 
remote  connection  is  thinkable ;  a  connection  not  extending 
beyond  a  limited  number  of  characters  or  the  idea  or  method 
of  writing.  The  earliest  Chinese  characters  preserved  on  bronzes 
are  nearly  two  thousand  years  younger  than  the  most  ancient 
inscriptions  of  the  system  which  developed  into  the  classic 
Cuneiform.  Both  systems  are  fairly  crystallized  when  they  first 
come  to  our  knowledge.  Their  formative  stages,  in  which  such 
connection  as  they  might  have  would  be  most  apparent,  are  ob¬ 
scure.  It  is  well  to  remember  that  Cuneiform  and  Egyptian 
hieroglyphic,  which  were  virtually  contemporaneous  and  much 
nearer  to  each  other  geographically,  have  not  yet  been  brought 
into  specific  relation  as  regards  their  origins. 

252.  Growth  and  Spread  of  Chinese  Civilization 

Chou  China  at  first  embraced  most  of  Shensi  and  Honan, 
southern  Shansi  and  Chihli,  and  western  Shantung.  It  was 
feudal,  and  practically  as  separatist  as  mediaeval  Germany.  The 
chief  functions  of  the  over-king  were  to  perform  sacrifices,  to 
admonish  the  kings  and  princes,  and  to  govern  his  small  dynastic 
domain.  Unity  lay  not  so  much  in  an  effective  organization  as 
in  an  idea,  the  feeling  of  a  common  race  and  especially  of  a 
common  civilization.  This  idea  has  persisted  to  the  present. 
It  is  adhesion  to  the  culture  of  China,  to  its  deep  roots,  its  per¬ 
manence,  its  humanities,  that  has  always  made  Chinamen  feel 
themselves  Chinamen;  has  in  fact  sooner  or  later  turned  into 
Chinamen  all  alien  elements,  whether  they  were  intrusive  con¬ 
querors  or  primitive  folk,  that  came  to  be  included  within  the 
limits  of  the  realm.  In  this  way  common  customs  and  ideals 
already  united  the  dozen  or  more  larger  Chou  states  and  hun¬ 
dreds  of  dependencies ;  and  chronic  internal  warfare  did  not 
prevent  this  era  from  being  the  age  of  Confucius,  Laotse,  Men¬ 
cius  and  the  other  great  sages  that  from  the  sixth  to  the  fourth 
centuries  formulated  the  typical  Chinese  character  and  atti¬ 
tude. 

During  the  latter  part  of  the  Chou  period  began  a  gradual 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


465 


reduction  of  the  number  of  feudal  states,  due  to  the  larger 
swallowing  the  smaller.  By  the  middle  of  the  third  century, 
two  of  these  had  emerged  as  preponderant:  Ts’in  in  the  west, 
centering  about  the  Wei  valley,  and  Ch’u  on  the  south,  along 
the  middle  Yangtse.  Both  were  frontier  states,  less  cultivated 
and  hardier  than  the  others,  and  regarded  as  barbarian  or  only 
half  Chinese.  Ts’in  may  have  included  some  Hunnish  absorp¬ 
tions;  Ch’u  very  likely  represented  the  rule  of  a  Chinese 
dynasty  over  a  native  population  whose  original  affiliations  may 
have  been  either  with  the  non-Sinitic  Anamese  of  to-day,  with 
the  Shan-Siamese  division,  or  with  some  closer  branch  of  the 
Sinitic  family,  but  who  were  gradually  assimilating  the  culture 
and  speech  of  the  northern  old  China.  At  last,  in  223  B.C., 
Ch’u  fell  before  Ts’in,  and  within  two  years  the  remaining 
states  in  the  northeast  collapsed.  For  the  first  time  China, 
from  nearly  its  present  frontier  to  south  of  the  Yangtse,  was 
effectively  under  one  active  ruler,  Shi  Hwang-ti,  the  “  first 
emperor.”  His  dynasty  crumbled  almost  at  his  death,  but  only 
to  be  succeeded  by  the  famous  Han  line,  under  which,  in  the 
two  centuries  before  and  the  two  after  Christ,  China  extended, 
consolidated,  and  prospered.  The  boundaries  of  the  empire 
were  pushed,  in  name  at  least,  to  virtually  their  present  limits ; 
and  though  political  control  may  often  have  been  slight,  cul¬ 
tural  influence  progressed  rapidly  south  of  the  Yangtse,  much 
as  Gaul  became  Romanized  at  the  same  time.  Even  the  survival 
of  half-independent  barbarian  groups  here  and  there  in  the 
south  and  west  has  its  parallel  in  the  persistence  of  Keltic  speech 
in  French  Brittany.  By  the  seventh  to  ninth  centuries  after 
Christ,  when  the  empire  flourished  once  more  under  the  Tang 
dynasty,  the  mass  of  southern  China  may  be  considered  to  have 
been  substantially  assimilated.  Even  the  southern  coast,  which 
was  the  last  area  to  be  integrated,  and  which  retains  to-day 
the  greatest  dialectic  differentiations  and  autonomous  tend¬ 
encies,  had  become  part  of  the  Chinese  polity  and  civilization. 
The  consequence  was  that  when  in  the  thirteenth  century  the 
Mongols  and  in  the  seventeenth  the  Manchus  conquered  the 
empire,  they  accomplished  little  more  than  the  overthrow  of  one 
dynasty  by  another.  The  course  of  Chinese  culture  went  on 
undisturbed,  as  it  had  in  several  previous  historic  periods  when 


466 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


half  of  the  realm  passed  temporarily  under  the  sway  of  nomads 
or  barbarians  from  the  north. 

A  considerable  measure  of  the  cultural  predominance  of  China 
over  her  neighbors  is  to  be  ascribed  to  her  more  numerous  popu¬ 
lation,  which  in  turn  was  partly  due  to  the  cultural  advance. 
The  Chinese  were  the  first  nation  to  maintain  a  system  of  fairly 
reliable  census  records.  In  the  first  century  and  a  half  after 
Christ,  under  the  Hans,  ten  censuses  showed  from  29  to  83  million 
inhabitants,  the  average  being  63  millions,  or  about  the  same 
as  the  estimated  population  of  the  Roman  empire  at  its  height; 
somewhat  more  than  that  of  Europe  when  America  was  dis¬ 
covered.  A  thousand  years  later,  between  1021  and  1580,  eight 
censuses  yielded  from  43  to  100  millions,  with  an  average  of  62 
millions.  Under  the  Manchus  the  population  gradually  rose 
from  125  millions  in  1736  to  380  in  1881.  To-day,  the  northern 
half  of  China  is  about  twice  as  populous  as  the  southern,  and 
the  eastern  half  exceeds  the  western  in  the  same  ratio.  This 
superior  density  of  population  in  the  northeast  reflects  the  fact 
that  ancient  China  was  the  northeast.  The  same  grounding  in 
the  past  is  evident  in  the  fact  that  from  the  time  of  the  Chous 
until  the  Mongol  conquest  in  1268,  the  imperial  capitals  lay 
mainly  in  Shensi  or  Honan,  the  core  of  the  old  kingdom. 

Many  ingredients  of  modern  Chinese  civilization,  and  most  of 
its  distinctive  color,  have  been  present  in  it  since  the  opening 
of  the  historic  period.  Such  are  the  use  of  hemp  and  silk  as 
the  typical  textile  materials;  of  jade  as  the  precious  stone  of  the 
nation ;  the  tremendous,  life-long  moral  authority  accorded  to 
parents,  and  the  associated  worship  of  ancestors;  the  unusual 
respect  and  rewards  for  learning;  a  professed  contempt  for  war 
and  emotional  activity;  aversion  for  mythological  and  meta¬ 
physical,  scientific,  or  any  other  sort  of  speculation,  and  coupled 
therewith  an  unflagging  interest  in  practical  ethics,  in  the  culti¬ 
vation  of  character,  in  the  finer  shaping  of  the  relations  of  indi¬ 
viduals.  These  and  other  leanings  endow  Chinese  civilization 
with  something  persistently  idiomatic,  with  a  quality  of  coherent 
originality.  If  this  civilization  were  less  great,  China  and  the 
countries  influenced  by  it  would  be  spoken  of  as  constituting 
what  among  barbarous  and  savage  peoples  we  call  a  culture- 
area.  In  the  widest  perspective,  they  are  such.  China,  India, 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


467 


the  West — which  in  this  view  of  'course  includes  the  Near  East 
as  well  as  Europe — are  the  three  great  focal  centers  of  civiliza¬ 
tion  in  the  eastern  hemisphere.  Their  cultures  have  risen  far 
above  those  of  the  intervening  and  peripheral  nations.  Until 
quite  recent  centuries,  the  three  have  run  their  courses  with 
approximately  equal  achievement.  And  while  exchanging  ele¬ 
ments  since  prehistoric  times,  they  have  each  molded  both  what 
they  borrowed  and  what  they  devised  into  a  unified  and  distinc¬ 
tive  design,  have  stamped  it  with  original  patterns.  In  short, 
culture  development  in  China,  India,  and  the  Occident  has  been 
coordinate. 

Of  course,  this  distinctness  of  the  three  great  regions  of  Old 
World  civilization  does  not  imply  that  diffusion  of  culture  ele¬ 
ments  between  them  ever  ceased.  It  is  the  form  more  than  the 
content  of  civilization  that  is  peculiar  to  the  three  areas.  From 
India,  for  instance,  China  derived  Buddhism,  which  was  ac¬ 
corded  a  reception  under  the  Hans  and  cultivated  with  fervor 
in  the  following  centuries.  Cotton  came  in  the  wake  of  the 
religion — first  as  a  rare  and  valuable  textile,  then  to  be  grown. 
The  West,  within  the  historic  period,  gave  glass  and  perhaps  the 
impulse  toward  a  Chinese  “invention” — porcelain,  a  glazed- 
through  pottery.  In  recent  centuries  the  West  acted  as  trans¬ 
mitter  for  several  elements  of  American  origin,  tobacco,  for 
example,  and  maize,  which  quickly  became  an  important  food- 
plant  in  parts  of  China.  There  have  even  been  reimportations. 
Gunpowder  is  said  to  have  been  used  for  fireworks  in  China  in 
the  fifth  century,  for  war  in  the  twelfth,  but  its  employment  for 
the  propulsion  of  missiles  from  firearms  is  due  to  introduction 
by  the  Altaic  nations  in  the  fifteenth  century.  From  the  fourth 
century  B.C.  on,  there  are  repeated  references  in  Chinese  sources 
to  the  magnetic  needle  and  to  “south-pointing  chariots” — ap¬ 
parently  a  compass-like  device  used  on  land,  though  probably 
only  as  a  mechanical  toy.  Then  the  needle  was  applied  to 
geomantic  purposes,  until  Arab  or  other  foreign  sailors  took  it 
up  as  a  true  mariner’s  compass,  and  in  the  eleventh  or  twelfth 
century  reintroduced  it  to  the  Chinese  as  an  instrument  of 
navigation. 

Nor  was  civilization  as  stagnant  in  China  as  the  outsider  is 
likely  to  think,  who  becomes  aware  first  of  all  of  its  persistent 


468  ANTHROPOLOGY 

native  flavor.  The  old  war  chariot,  for  instance,  went  out  of 
use  about  contemporaneously  in  China  and  the  West.  Printing 
from  engraved  blocks  was  in  vogue  in  the  sixth  century  after 
Christ,  from  movable  clay  types  in  the  dynasties  between  the 
Tangs  and  the  Mongols,  from  metal  types  not  much  later,  since 
the  art  was  established  among  the  imitating  Koreans  in  the 
fifteenth  century.  A  system  of  classifying  the  numerous  char¬ 
acters  was  invented  before  the  Tangs ;  the  modern  one  of  group¬ 
ing  them  according  to  214  radicals,  under  the  Mings.  True 
encyclopaedias  were  first  compiled  in  the  fourteenth  century — 
four  hundred  years  earlier  than  in  the  West.  The  system  of 
awarding  office  on  the  basis  of  literary  examinations  took  root 
under  the  Hans  and  became  organized  under  the  Tangs.  The 
earliest  poetry,  three  thousand  years  ago,  was  rimed,  and  had 
four  or  five  monosyllabic  words  in  the  line.  In  the  Tang  time, 
the  line  became  extended  to  seven  wTords;  and  still  later  was 
the  origin  of  the  peculiar  rhythm  of  alternating  tones — a  system 
by  which  every  other  word  was  one  bearing  the  “even”  tone 
and  those  between  any  of  the  other  tones.  Paper  making  is  said 
to  date  from  the  Hans,  and  paper  money  was  first  issued — 
disastrously  as  in  some  of  the  first  Western  attempts — under  the 
Mongols.  These  and  dozens  of  other  instances  that  might  be 
compiled  exemplify,  as  does  the  history  of  ancient  Egypt,  that 
even  those  cultures  constantly  move  to  which  one  is  tempted  to 
apply  the  stigma  “conservative”  or  “tradition-bound.” 

253.  The  Lolos 

Scattered  in  the  mountains  of  southern  and  western  China  are 
a  number  of  barbarous,  semi-independent  peoples  of  distinctive 
ways  and  speech  who  maintain  their  national  or  tribal  status. 
They  seem  on  first  contact  to  promise  a  picture  of  the  pre- 
Chinese  culture  of  the  area,  but  examination  shows  their  cus¬ 
toms  to  be  a  blend  of  primitive  and  advanced,  ancient  and 
recent  elements.  The  Lolos  of  Szechuan  may  serve  as  an 
example.  They  eat  meat  from  their  herds,  use  no  milk,  but 
wear  woolen  clothing.  They  grow  neither  cotton  nor  rice. 
They  raise  oats,  buckwheat,  maize,  and  potatoes.  Two  of  these 
plants  are  of  north  or  west  Asiatic  origin ;  the  others  are 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


469 


American.  Plows  are  used.  Houses  are  of  lashed  bamboos,  and 
rain-coats  of  palm-fiber.  No  pottery  is  made,  but  iron  is  worked 
into  weapons  and  tools  by  native  smiths.  The  Lolos  are  war¬ 
like.  They  fight  like  Malaysians  with  lance  and  sword.  They 
are  organized  “feudally, ”  into  nobility  and  commoners,  with 
tribal  heads  or  lords.  They  marry  cousins.  Religion  resembles 
that  of  the  more  backward  Indo-Chinese  and  Malaysian  peoples. 
Sorcerer-priests  cure  disease;  sacrifice  animals  for  their  blood, 
the  flesh  being  eaten ;  offer  also  fermented  liquor ;  divine  the 
future  by  observing  parts  of  the  sacrificed  animals — the  cracks 
that  develop  in  heated  shoulder-blades  (§  97).  There  is  a  native 
system  of  writing,  which  seems  to  derive  from  Chinese  stimulus, 
if  not  sources.  It  is  obvious  that  this  culture  has  fused  together 
very  old  elements  that  are  characteristic  of  southeastern  Asia, 
with  elements  that  have  flowed  in  from  remote  sources  or  during 
the  most  recent  centuries.  It  is  also  clear  that  certain  ingredi¬ 
ents  of  Chinese  culture  have  been  freely  absorbed  and  others 
rejected  by  this  mountain  people. 

Such  cultures  as  that  of  the  Lolos  may  be  described  as  in¬ 
ternally  marginal  or  peripheral.  They  differ  from  externally 
marginal  cultures,  like  those  of  the  Bushmen,  Australians, 
Euegians,  in  that  the  latter,  on  account  of  their  geographical 
remoteness,  have  retained  their  ancient  level  with  relative 
purity.  Included  marginal  cultures,  on  the  contrary,  being 
of  necessity  exposed  to  subsequent  influences,  are  regularly  a 
mixture  of  belated  and  recent  ingredients,  no  matter  how  well 
integrated  these  may  have  become. 

254.  Korea 

Korea  has  repeatedly  been  under  the  political  authority  of 
China,  more  often  autonomous,  but  for  three  thousand  years  has 
been  dependent  on  China  culturally.  Non-Chinese  influences 
have  also  reached  it:  such  as  an  alphabet  of  Indian  origin 
(§  149)  ;  and  probably  the  earliest  iron  industry  came  in  from 
Altaic  sources.  In  its  turn,  the  peninsula  transmitted  to 
Japan:  until  about  a  thousand  years  ago,  Chinese  writing  and 
culture  reached  Japan  mainly  via  Korea.  The  spread  of  Chi¬ 
nese  civilization  was  perhaps  largely  of  the  usual,  slow,  diffus- 


470 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


ing  kind,  but  was  several  times  accelerated  by  the  settlement  in 
Korea  of  groups  of  Chinese  refugees,  colonists,  or  adventurers; 
for  instance  in  Chou  and  Han  times.  The  center  of  power  and 
civilization  within  Korea  has  gradually  moved  southwards,  which 
suggests  the  waning  of  original  central  Asiatic  affiliations  as 
Chinese  ones  became  stronger.  The  first  realm  to  be  defined 
was  Fuyu  on  the  Sungari  river.  Then  followed  Kokorai  or 
Korai,  whence  our  name  Korea.  In  the  centuries  immediately 
before  and  after  Christ,  Shinra  and  then  Hiaksai,  farther  south 
on  the  peninsula,  came  into  the  lead.  By  the  beginning  of  this 
period  not  only  the  writing  but  the  classic  books  of  China  had 
been  introduced.  Since  the  fourteenth  century  Confucianism 
has  been  the  state  religion — though  the  people  had  long  before 
become  Buddhists — and  literary  examinations  for  office  of  the 
Chinese  type  have  been  in  vogue. 

255.  Japan 

Japan  is  the  one  country  of  eastern  Asia  from  which  consid¬ 
erable  prehistoric  data  are  available.  There  are  indeed  no  in¬ 
dubitable  evidences  of  any  Palaeolithic  culture  or  race,  but  shell- 
heaps  and  burial  mounds  abound  and  have  been  explored.  The 
shell  deposits,  of  which  4,000  have  been  found,  are  probably 
the  accumulation  of  refuse  of  occupation  by  the  Ainu,  the  first 
known  inhabitants  of  Japan,  now  surviving  only  in  the  extreme 
north  of  the  island  chain  and  in  Sakhalien,  and  still  a  primitive 
people.  This  race  is  different  from  the  Japanese,  and  has  often 
been  classified  as  Caucasian  (§27)  The  shell  deposits  show  the 
aborigines  tb  have  been  fishers  and  hunters,  without  agriculture 
or  edible  domestic  animals.  They  had  the  bow,  dog,  incised 
hand-made  pottery,  and  ground  stone  axes,  and  were  thus  ap¬ 
proximately  in  an  early  Neolithic  stage. 

A  somewhat  dubious  bronze  age  is  sparsely  represented  in 
southern  Japan.  It  has  been  ascribed  to  an  invasion  about  the 
seventh  century  B.C.,  but  is  perhaps  only  an  early  phase  of  the 
iron  age.  Iron  was  brought  in  at  a  time  not  precisely  deter¬ 
mined,  but  likely  to  have  been  about  the  fourth  century  B.C., 
by  the  so-called  Yamato  people — evidently  the  ancestors  of  the 
Japanese  of  to-day — who  seem  to  have  come  from  Korea  and  at 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


471 


any  rate  occupied  the  southern  islands  first.  Thence  they  fought 
their  way  northward,  gaining  territory  at  the  expense  of  the 
natives  but  slowly.  Fifteen  centuries  ago  the  northern  third 
of  the  main  island  was  still  in  Ainu  possession.  These  early 
Japanese  erected  megalithic  chambers  or  corridors  as  tombs  for 
their  princes,  covering  them  with  mounds  of  earth.  More  than 
3,000  of  these  structures  are  known.  The  early  emperors  were 
buried  in  double  mounds,  some  of  them  of  great  area.  From 
the  fifth  to  the  seventh  century  Korean  influence  was  strong; 
the  Chinese  writing  and  classics  were  imported  from  that  coun¬ 
try.  Later  relations  between  the  two  nations  were  more  inter¬ 
mittent,  perhaps  because  of  the  growing  consolidation  and 
strength  of  Japan  from  the  eighth  century  on. 

The  cultural  debt  of  Japan  to  China  is  great,  but  less  than 
that  of  Korea.  The  Japanese  added  47  purely  phonetic  syllabic 
characters  to  the  Chinese  writing,  in  order  to  represent  their 
own  proper  names,  grammatical  forms,  and  the  like.  These  char¬ 
acters  would  have  sufficed  for  a  simple,  efficient,  and  purely 
native  script,  but  have  remained  a  mere  supplement  to  the  ideo¬ 
graphic  Chinese  system  (§105).  The  mandarin  and  examina¬ 
tion  system  of  China  were  never  taken  over  by  the  Japanese, 
who  clung  to  their  feudal  customs  more  than  two  thousand  years 
later  than  China.  The  ancestor  worship  of  the  Chinese  and  the 
official  Confucian  religion  also  did  not  become  established  in 
Japan,  the  state  cult  being  Shinto,  the  crystallization  of  a  primi¬ 
tive  set  of  rites  and  of  a  mythology  which  has  parallels  in  the 
Occident,  in  the  East  Indies  and  Oceania,  and  even  in  North 
America,  rather  than  in  China. 

An  early  Malaysian  strain  in  both  Japanese  race  and  culture 
has  been  alleged,  but  this  is  a  subject  on  which  more  evidence 
is  needed.  Japanese  speech  does  not  elucidate  the  origins  of 
the  nation,  the  language — like  that  of  Korea — not  being  deter¬ 
mined  as  related  to  any  other.  The  physical  type,  on  the  other 
hand,  and  this  applies  also  to  Korea,  is  allied  to  that  of  China. 

256.  Central  and  Northern  Asia 

It  has  become  a  habit  to  regard  central  and  northern  Asia  as 
a  hive  for  humanity,  as  the  area  from  which  nations  and  races 


472 


ANTHKOPOLOGY 


have  chronically  swarmed.  Whenever  the  origin  of  a  peojfie 
remains  obscure,  be  they  Neandertals,  Alpines,  Sumerians,  Chi¬ 
nese,  Japanese,  Aryans,  or  what  not,  some  one  propounds  the 
convenient  hypothesis  of  deriving  them  from  this  vast  interior 
land,  which  in  many  cases  amounts  to  an  explanation  of  the 
half-known  by  the  unknown.  Of  late  there  has  been  added  the 
fashion  of  attributing  the  expansions  to  climatic  drying-up  of 
central  Asia,  which  forced  the  population  out.  There  appears 
to  be  considerable  evidence  of  such  progressive  desiccation;  but 
its  degree,  and  still  more  the  extent  of  its  influence  upon  cul¬ 
ture  and  emigration,  remain  to  be  ascertained. 

A  more  balanced  view  would  concede  the  recurrence  and 
occasional  destructiveness  of  the  invasions  out  of  central  Asia, 
but  would  view  them  rather  as  transient  and  relatively  super¬ 
ficial  phenomena  from  the  point  of  view  of  civilization ;  and  on 
the  other  hand  would  recognize  that  under  all  the  boiling  of 
tribes  and  peoples,  the  growth  and  spread  of  culture  went 
steadily  on,  even  in  the  tracts  which  one  is  wont  to  associate 
only  with  the  perpetual  breeding  of  elusive  and  devastating 
nomads.  In  short,  it  is  wise  to  guard  against  a  natural  over¬ 
estimation  of  the  sensational,  cataclysmic  aspects  of  the  history 
of  the  interior  Asiatic  peoples.  It  is  their  spasmodic  irruptions 
which  the  self-centered  nations  of  the  West,  of  India,  and  of 
China,  have  been  chiefly  concerned  with.  Their  attempts  at 
achieving  stability,  their  increments  to  the  world’s  culture,  their 
role  as  peaceful  transmitters,  have  lain  at  home,  largely  out  of 
vision  of  the  peoples  clustered  about  the  foci  of  civilization. 

It  may  be  added  that  the  temptation  to  the  outsider  to  burst 
by  force  into  the  seats  of  wealth  and  splendor  as  soon  as  firm¬ 
ness  of  guard  slackens,  is  not  confined  to  Ural-Altaians,  but  is 
ever  present  in  history.  Amorites,  Hebrews,  Arabs,  ^Ethiopians, 
Lybians,  Greeks,  Kelts,  Germans,  Hindus,  and  Malays  have  all 
played  this  part  at  one  time  or  another.  Semite,  Hamite,  and 
Aryan  are  no  different  in  such  regard  from  Ural- Altaian,  except 
that  in  the  short  span  conventionally  known  as  history  the 
former  have  happened  more  often  to  be  the  ins  and  haves,  the 
central  Asiatics  the  outs  and  have-nots.  Further,  the  destruc¬ 
tive  effect  of  nomad  migrations,  even  where  accompanied  by 
mass  settlement  of  population,  is  everywhere  transient  so  far 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


473 


as  civilization  is  concerned.  Hebrew  and  Hellenic,  Arab  and 
Germanic  tribes  did  crash  cities  and  empires  before  them,  but 
they  tore  down  only  what  was  already  moribund,  and  brought 
in  new  systems  of  thought,  new  methods  of  feeling  and  organi¬ 
zation,  which,  however  crude  at  first,  soon  added  new  qualities 
to  culture.  The  chief  distinction  of  the  north  Asiatics  is  that, 
excepting  some  terror-striking  massacres,  they  were  both  less 
subversive  and  less  constructive  culturally  than  Semites  and 
Indo-Europeans.  They  barely  dented  the  civilization  of  the 
West  as  they  barely  dented  that  of  India  and  China.  If  Russia 
is  backward  as  compared  with  western  Europe,  it  is  not  from 
having  been  Tatar-ruled  a  few  centuries,  but  because  Russia 
has  long  been  peripheral  to  the  Mediterranean  focus  of  civiliza¬ 
tion  and  therefore  chronically  belated.  It  was  the  very  thin¬ 
ness  of  her  culture  that  made  mediaeval  Russia  succumb  to  the 
Mongol  wave  which  pounded  vainly  against  the  more  consoli¬ 
dated  civilization  of  central  Europe  and  quickly  drew  off. 

To  define  the  exact  contribution  of  the  North  Asiatics  to  civi¬ 
lization  is  difficult:  partly  because  of  the  comparative  paucity 
of  available  archaeological  and  historical  records ;  partly  because 
their  habitat  did  not  contain  one  of  the  greater  hearths  of  civi¬ 
lization  at  which  its  most  distinctive  forms  were  sweated  out. 
The  area  has  always  been  relatively  though  not  extremely 
peripheral.  The  horse,  indeed,  can  be  set  down  as  one  impor¬ 
tant  gift  of  the  Ural-Altaic  peoples  or  their  predecessors  to  gen¬ 
eral  civilization.  It  is  only  in  central  Asia  that  a  wild  horse 
— not  a  tame  breed  that  has  run  wild — is  to  be  found ;  and  it 
seems  to  have  been  from  the  north  that  soon  after  2000  B.C.  the 
animal  was  introduced  into  Mesopotamia  and  India.  Biological 
considerations  also  point  to  interior  Asia  as  the  most  likely  area 
of  first  domestication  of  several  of  the  earlier  fundamental  ani¬ 
mals  of  culture,  especially  the  sheep  and  goat.  The  compara¬ 
tively  advanced  culture  of  Anau  in  Turkistan  in  the  Neolithic 
and  early  Bronze  periods  is  also  significant,  even  though  this 
site  lies  only  just  within  the  great  steppe  and  plateau  country. 
Some  of  the  jade  and  jade-like  stone  used  for  tools  and  orna¬ 
ments  in  the  Swiss  lake-dwellings  appears  to  have  come  from 
inner  Turkistan.  The  probability  of  the  central  Asiatic  peoples 
having  been  the  transmitters  of  metals,  cattle,  grains  and  other 


474 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


important  groups  of  culture  elements  from  the  Near  to  the  Far 
East  has  already  been  mentioned,  as  has  the  established  trade 
between  China  and  the  Mediterranean  world  in  Roman  times 
(§251).  Indeed  the  very  character  of  the  country  and  cultural 
conditions  which  favored  a  considerable  degree,  though  not  an 
absolute  prevalence,  of  nomadism  in  interior  Asia,  seem  also  to 
have  fostered,  in  many  periods,  a  longer  range  of  trade  than 
flourished  elsewhere.  Finally,  it  appears  that  the  Turks  and 
Mongols  had  at  least  a  hand  in  the  early  use  of  gunpowder  for 
firearms ;  and,  as  already  mentioned,  the  first  state  paper  money, 
that  of  China,  was  issued  by  a  Mongol  dynasty.  It  is  scarcely 
rash  to  predict  that  the  intensive  study  of  the  interior  Asiatic 
peoples  from  both  prehistoric  and  historic  sources,  without 
speculative  bias  or  plunging  of  opinion,  will  prove  one  of  the 
most  illuminating  contributions  to  the  history  of  general  civili¬ 
zation. 

The  original  unity  of  the  Ural-Altaians — with  the  Turks, 
Mongols,  and  Tungus-Manchu  as  the  Altaic  or  definitely 
Asiatic  group,  Finno-Ugrians  as  Uralic  or  Eurasian,  and 
Samoyeds  as  specifically  Arctic  representatives — is  accepted  on 
linguistic  grounds  by  almost  all  authorities  in  the  field.  Yet 
the  career  of  the  several  divisions  has  been  diverse.  The 
Finno-Ugrians  have  mainly  been  peaceful :  the  Finns  definitely 
so  for  two  thousand  years :  the  Hungarian  Magjmrs  were  excep¬ 
tional  when  they  terrorized  central  Europe  a  thousand  years 
ago.  Both  these  nations  have  long  since  become  integrally  ab¬ 
sorbed  into  European  culture.  They  are  the  only  Ural-Altaic 
peoples  with  this  experience.  The  remainder  of  the  Finno- 
Ugrians  have  for  some  centuries  become  increasingly  submerged 
under  Russian  civilization ;  much  as  in  the  Far  East  the  Manchu- 
Tungus  have  gradually  fallen  more  and  more  under  either  Chi¬ 
nese  or,  of  late,  Russian  cultural  influence.  As  between  the 
Turks  and  Mongols,  the  greatest  single  conquest,  that  of 
Djengis  Khan  and  his  successors,  falls  to  the  record  of  the 
latter;  but  the  Turks  have  been  the  more  numerous,  stable,  and 
advanced  people.  They  have  frequently  settled  as  well  as  in¬ 
vaded  ;  and  are  the  only  known  stock,  as  previously  mentioned 
(§  245),  that  has  ever  seriously  and  permanently  encroached  on 
territory  once  held  by  Indo-Europeans — in  Asia  Minor  and  the 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


475 


Caspian  region.  The  later  so-called  Mongol  conquests,  those  of 
Tamerlane  and  the  Indian  Moguls,  were  made  by  armies  mainly 
of  Turks  under  dynasties  tracing  back  to  former  Mongol  leaders. 
The  Turks  in  general  have  inclined  to  Mohammedanism  on  com¬ 
ing  into  contact  with  the  world  religions,  the  Mongols  to  Bud¬ 
dhism,  although  Christianity  in  its  Nestorian  form  once  made 
considerable  numbers  of  converts  among  both. 

Several  important  historic  peoples  cannot  yet  be  assigned  with 
certainty  to  one  or  the  other  of  the  Ural-Altaic  divisions,  or  are 
variously  classified:  thus  the  Huns,  most  likely  to  have  been 
Turks ;  the  White  Huns  or  Ephthalites ;  the  Avars ;  and  the 
ancient  Bulgars. 

In  northern  and  eastern  Siberia  there  live,  besides  the 
Samoyed,  a  series  of  non-Ural-Altaic  peoples,  truly  peripheral 
and  retarded  in  culture,  who  seem  once  to  have  occupied  larger 
areas  but  to  have  shrunk  or  been  partially  absorbed  before 
Ural-Altaic  expansion.  These  include  the  tribes  sometimes 
grouped  as  Yeniseian;  the  Yukaghir;  the  Kamchadal-Koryak- 
Chukchi  group ;  a  few  Eskimo  who  have  either  failed  to  cross 
Behring  strait  or  have  come  across  it  from  America;  and  per¬ 
haps  the  Ainu  of  Japan  and  Sakhalien.  These  have  been  called 
the  Palaeo-Asiatic  peoples,  though  their  diverse  languages  render 
their  community  of  origin  dubious.  How  far  they  may  be  con¬ 
sidered  as  following  a  positively  similar  culture,  except  in  direct 
response  to  an  extreme  climate,  is  also  doubtful.  Their  rigor¬ 
ously  marginal  position  and  depriving  environment  stamp  their 
culture  with  a  preponderance  of  negative  traits.  The  possession 
of  domesticated  reindeer  is  common  to  several  of  these  peoples 
as  well  as  to  the  Tungus  and  the  Finno-Ugric  Lapps  of  northern 
Russia  and  Scandinavia.  Reindeer-breeding  among  these  groups 
appears  to  be  due  to  a  transmission,  in  the  sense  of  being  a 
reflex  of  contact,  an  imitation  of  the  cattle  or  horse  breeding 
of  the  more  favorably  situated  nations  to  the  south.  It  is  also 
interesting  and  probably  significant  that  the  American  Eskimos 
never  domesticated  the  reindeer,  although  they  depended  largely 
upon  its  hunt. 

Racially  the  array  of  north  and  central  Asiatic  peoples  shades 
from  pronounced  Caucasian  to  extreme  Mongoloid  type.  The 
Mongols  have  given  name  to  their  whole  larger  racial  stock,  and 


476 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


the  Tungus-Manchu  and  northeast  Siberian  savages  clearly 
form  part  thereof.  The  Turks  in  the  main  are  rather  Caucasian, 
although  all  intergradations  occur  according  to  region;  as  also 
among  the  Pinno-Ugrians.  The  Hungarians  to-day  are  not  only 
Caucasians  but  Alpines ;  the  Finns  definite  Nordics ;  the  Lapps 
a  strange  partial  graft  of  Nordic  traits  on  broad  faced  and 
broad  headed  Mongolian  physique. 

257.  India 

India  is  not  a  country,  but  a  connected  block  of  lands  shut 
off  from  the  remainder  of  the  world  by  lofty  mountains  and 
harboring  a  population  approximating  those  of  Europe  and  of 
China.  Its  300,000,000  inhabitants  constitute  nearly  a  fifth  of 
humanity.  Historically,  India  forms  a  continent  as  fully  as 
does  Africa.  Culturally,  it  must  be  equated  with  the  Occidental 
or  Mediterranean  area  and  with  China  as  one  of  the  three  great 
and  substantially  coordinate  focal  points  which  civilization  de¬ 
veloped  in  the  eastern  hemisphere. 

Racially  the  peoples  of  India  are  prevailingly  Caucasian,  but 
both  the  two  other  great  stocks  are  represented.  Nearly  every¬ 
where,  but  especially  in  the  south,  there  is  an  evident  admixture 
of  a  dark  skinned,  broad  nosed,  long  headed  type.  This  is  more 
likely  to  have  had  Australoid  than  Negro  affinities  before  its 
absorption;  remnants  of  it,  like  the  Yeddas  of  Ceylon  and  Irulas 
and  some  other  tribes  of  the  Deccan,  are  often  grouped  with 
more  easterly  peoples  as  representatives  of  an  original  Indo- 
Australoid  race  (§  24,  27,  260).  So  far  as  this  race  can  be 
reconstructed,  it  seems  to  have  been  less  Negroid  than  the  Aus¬ 
tralian  of  to-day ;  that  is,  it  possessed  more  Caucasian  resem¬ 
blances.  In  fact,  it  might  almost  be  described  as  proto-Cauca¬ 
sian.  In  this  light  the  modern  Hindu 1  would  be  a  varying 
mixture  of  two  related  strains — the  undifferentiated  proto- 
Caucasian,  approximating  the  Australian  and  perhaps  having 
ultimate  Negroid  relations  without  being  Negroid ;  and  the 

i  In  India,  “Hindu”  means  any  native  who  adheres  to  the  higher  cults 
of  native  origin  which  collectively  constitute  the  “religion”  known  as 
Hinduism;  in  effect,  the  non-savage  and  non-Mohammedan  inhabitants. 
Hindus  and  Mohammedans  are  contrasted  in  local  usage.  In  this  book, 
Hindu  is  synonymous  with  Indian,  irrespective  of  religion. 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


477 


specialized  Caucasian  typical  of  the  Occident ;  the  former 
strongest  in  the  south,  the  latter  almost  pure  in  the  northwest 
of  India.  This  hypothesis  has  this  to  commend  it:  it  squares 
with  the  facts  that  the  Hindu  in  spite  of  his  dark  complexion 
makes  almost  universally  the  impression  of  being  essentially 
“white”  in  race;  and  that  he  differs  outstandingly  from  what 
a  mulatto-like  blend  of  Negro  and  Caucasian  would  be. 

In  the  north  and  east  of  India,  Mongolian  resemblances  begin 
to  appear,  as  the  natural  result  of  thousands  of  years  of  contact 
of  two  stocks. 

It  would  seem  that  the  proportions  of  racial  blood  in  India, 
and  in  the  rough  their  geographical  distribution,  parallel  the  pro¬ 
portions  of  the  numbers  of  speakers  of  tongues  belonging  to  the 
several  families.  More  than  three-fourths  of  the  Hindus  speak 
Indo-European  dialects.  Most  of  the  remainder  are  Dravidas 
in  the  south  and  Kolarians  in  the  east  central  parts — the  same 
regions  in  which  the  Indo-Australoid  or  proto-Caucasian  element 
is  most  conspicuous.  Along  the  northeastern  edge,  Tibeto- 
Burman  speech  has  spilled  in  with  the  Mongolian  type.  How¬ 
ever,  while  the  races  have  blended,  the  languages  have  remained 
distinct.  As  almost  everywhere,  the  linguistic  classification  is 
therefore  clearer  cut  in  India  than  the  racial  one.  Consequently 
it  is  misleading  to  infer  from  a  Hindu’s  speaking  a  Sanskrit- 
derived  language  that  his  Caucasian  blood  is  pure,  or  conversely 
to  conclude  that  all  Dravidians  have  broad  noses  and  black 
skins. 

The  Kolarians  have  been  thought  by  some  to  possess  ancient 
linguistic  relatives  to  the  east  (§  50),  and  certainly  possess  cul¬ 
tural  ones  in  this  direction  (§262).  Dravidian  speech  has  not 
been  thus  connected,  even  tentatively,  and  one  indication  points 
to  its  former  westward  extension :  the  Brahui  language  in 
Beluchistan,  which  appears  to  be  the  remnant  of  an  old 
Dravidian  offshoot. 

The  ancient  culture  of  India  is  inadequately  known.  Archaeo¬ 
logical  exploration  and  analysis  have  been  insufficient;  yet  they 
have  gone  far  enough  to  suggest  that  the  prehistoric  develop¬ 
ment  followed  different  lines  from  those  in  the  West,  so  that 
the  findings  of  European  prehistory  cannot  be  applied  to  inter¬ 
pret  such  knowledge  as  there  is  on  India.  Thus  the  Lower 


478 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


Palaeolithic  stage  is  well  represented  in  India,  but  there  is  noth¬ 
ing  to  show  whether  or  not  it  was  contemporaneous  with  that 
of  Europe.  There  is  some  possibility  that  it  passed  into  the 
Neolithic  without  the  intervening  Upper  Palaeolithic  which  is  so 
important  in  western  Europe  (§  213).  It  seems  dubious  whether 
there  was  a  true  Bronze  Age  in  India.  More  pre-iron  imple¬ 
ments  of  pure  copper  seem  to  have  been  found  than  of  tin 
bronze. 

The  early  Kolarian  culture  seems  preserved  in  considerable 
degree  among  the  modern  Kolarians,  who  are  backward  hill  or 
forest  tribes,  that  is,  internally  peripheral  to  the  prevalent  higher 
civilization.  At  any  rate,  their  culture  resembles  that  of  many 
less  advanced  populations  to  the  east,  well  out  into  Oceania. 
This  presumably  ancient  and  partly  surviving  “Indo-Oceanic” 
culture  is  discussed  below  (§  262).  As  regards  its  history 
within  India,  this  is  almost  certain :  the  old  culture  is  nowhere 
any  longer  pure,  but  has  regularly  absorbed  elements  of  the 
advanced  civilization  that  surrounds  it;  and  conversely  has  con¬ 
tributed  to  the  latter.  For  instance,  one  of  the  great  recognized 
cults  of  India  is  Sivaism,  which  tends  frequently  to  bloodiness 
and  obscenity  and  is  a  strange  mixture  of  philosophical  ration¬ 
alization  and  crass  superstition.  One  of  the  most  frequent 
attributes  of  Siva  is  a  necklace  of  skulls;  a  feature  that  looks 
as  if  it  might  go  back  to  the  skull  cult  which  is  a  typical  in¬ 
gredient  of  Indo-Oceanic  culture. 

The  old  Dravidian  culture  was  probably  more  advanced  than 
the  Kolarian  but  is  more  difficult  to  reconstruct  because  of  its 
extensive  blending  with  the  culture  brought  in  or  developed  by 
Indo-Europeans.  The  Dravidians,  perhaps  because  they  were 
the  more  advanced  and  populous,  were  able  to  accept  the  intru¬ 
sive  culture  and  yet  maintain  themselves,  whereas  the  Kolarians 
either  preserved  themselves  by  resisting  civilization  or  had  their 
speech  and  identity  absorbed  by  it.  When  the  Dravidians  first 
begin  to  creep  into  history,  shortly  before  the  Christian  era, 
they  already  possess  cities,  kingdoms,  commerce,  writing,  and 
philosophy.  They  have  on  the  whole  contributed  less  to  Indian 
civilization  than  the  Indo-Europeans:  its  center  always  lay  in 
the  north ;  but  they  have  long  formed  an  integral  part  of  it. 

The  Indo-Europeans  are  first  known  to  us  from  their  religious 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


479 


hymns,  the  Vedas,  which  have  been  preserved  as  sacrosanct  by 
succeeding  ages,  and  constitute  the  oldest  continuously  trans¬ 
mitted  documents  in  history.  They  date  from  2000  or  1500  to 
not  after  1000  B.C.,  and  are  in  Sanskrit,  which  is  fairly  close 
to  Avestan  or  Old  Persian,  the  two  languages  and  their  de¬ 
scendants  constituting  the  Indo-Iranian  or  proper  Aryan 
branch  of  Indo-European.  When  Indo-European  as  a  whole  is 
designated  as  Aryan,  it  is  by  an  extension  of  the  term.  The 
region  of  India  to  which  the  Vedas  almost  wholly  refer  is  the 
Indus  drainage,  that  is  the  northwest,  the  parts  adjoining  the 
Iranian  highland,  whence  the  invaders  came  or  through  which 
they  passed. 

Vedic  Aryan  culture  was  of  late  Bronze  Age  type.  Whether 
the  bronze  was  really  such,  or  copper,  it  is  mentioned  more 
frequently  than  iron,  as  in  Homer  and  the  older  books  of  the 
Bible.  Grains,  cattle,  horses,  chariots  and  wagons,  the  plow, 
wool  and  weaving,  gold,  patriarchal  chieftains  and  a  tribal 
society,  a  nature  mythology,  non-communal  rituals  with  con¬ 
stant  but  prevailingly  bloodless  sacrifices,  are  the  characteristics 
of  this  culture.  It  smacks  more  of  the  Europe  of  its  time  than 
of  the  contemporary  Orient.  It  is  unbound,  ready  to  pack  up 
and  move  without  being  essentially  nomadic;  half  peasant-like 
and  half  aristocratic ;  an  uncitified  semi-civilization,  pioneer 
rather  than  backwoods.  The  temples  and  writing,  walled  towns 
and  kingdoms,  district  gods  and  royal  tombs  of  Egypt,  Babylon, 
Canaan,  Minoan  Greece  are  wanting.  The  picture  is  that  of 
the  first  historic  Indo-Europeans  elsewhere,  in  eastern  and  cen¬ 
tral  Europe ;  with  whom  the  Aryans  undoubtedly  were  or  had 
been  in  connection  through  the  countries  north  of  the  Black 
and  Caspian  seas. 

A  few  centuries  after  the  Vedas,  the  culture  depicted  by  the 
literary  remains  is  profoundly  altered.  The  scene  has  shifted 
to  the  Ganges  valley.  There  are  cities  and  palaces,  wealth  and 
pomp.  There  are  kings,  priests,  townsmen,  peasants,  hermits 
and  ascetics.  Caste  is  in  vogue.  Cotton  and  rice  are  in  use. 
There  is  a  deal  of  philosophizing;  life  appears  complex  and  dif¬ 
ficult  ;  pessimism  is  abroad,  soul  rebirth  taken  for  granted, 
spirituality  emphasized.  Concepts  to  which  western  science 
later  returned,  the  atom  and  ether,  are  familiar.  In  all  essen- 


480 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


tials,  post-Christian  Hinduism  had  been  blocked  out  in  this  pre- 
Christian  period.  Only  a  few  elements  like  money  and  writing 
are  lacking. 

This  change  from  the  Yedic  age  is  not  fully  accounted  for, 
and  the  time  usually  allowed  for  its  occurrence  is  insufficient. 
Buddha  was  born  B.C.  563  or  557.  His  religion  assumes  ideas 
which  are  part  of  the  Sankhya  philosophy — in  many  ways  the 
subtlest  philosophy  of  all  India  and  one  of  the  great  thought 
systematizations  of  the  world.  Its  founder  Kapila  is  placed 
about  600  B.C.,  and  must  have  had  predecessors.  Caste  seems 
a  thing  of  development.  It  is  absent  in  the  Vedas,  but  Buddhism 
is  already  in  a  measure  a  protest  against  it.  It  seems  difficult 
to  squeeze  such  growths  into  a  few  hundred  years.  It  is  true 
that  the  florescence  of  Greece  came  with  a  rush ;  but  Greek  civi¬ 
lization  rose  from  the  debris  of  the  older  Minoan  one  and  was  in 
contact  with  the  cultures  of  Asia.  In  India  there  is  no  sign  of 
an  antecedent  high  civilization,  and  a  greater  dearth  of  known 
foreign  influences  between  1000  and  600  B.C.  than  at  any  other 
period.  The  transposition  of  the  cultural  center  eastward  must 
enter  into  the  problem.  Perhaps  a  larger  and  wealthier  pre- 
Aryan  population  was  encountered  by  the  Aryans  along  the 
Ganges,  contact  and  mixture  with  whom  proved  provocative  of 
innovation.  Or  possibly  the  movement  and  development  in  the 
east  began  while  the  Vedas  were  still  being  composed  along  the 
Indus,  and  were  ignored  by  them.  Or,  conceivably,  the  Aryans 
on  the  Ganges  may  have  been  the  first  comers,  who  quickly 
altered  in  the  direction  of  their  future  civilization  but  remained 
obscure  to  our  vision  during  the  period  in  which  the  Vedas 
were  being  made  or  retained  by  the  later  comers  of  the  Punjab, 
in  whose  memories  and  sub-arid  environment  their  former 
steppe  culture  remained  more  unmodified.  These  are  only 
speculations :  they  emphasize  the  gap  in  our  understanding  of 
this  important  chapter  of  world  culture  history. 

258.  Indian  Caste  and  Religion 

Caste  is  peculiarly  Indian.  Nowhere  else  is  it  so  complex,  so 
systematically  worked  out  and  endlessly  reinforced  by  ritual 
and  taboo,  so  pervasive  of  conduct  and  thought.  It  has  been 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


481 


ascribed  to  the  conflict  of  races,  to  the  drawing  of  a  color  line 
by  conquerors  in  order  to  keep  their  lineage  and  culture  pure. 
If  so,  it  has  failed  egregiously,  as  the  physical  anthropology 
of  modern  India  shows.  The  explanation  is  obviously  inade¬ 
quate.  Castes  do  represent  race  to  a  certain  extent,  but  they 
also  represent  nationalities,  tribes,  common  residence,  religious 
distinctness,  occupations,  cultural  status.  Whatever  sets  off  a 
group  in  any  way  may  be  sufficient  to  make  it  a  caste  in  India. 
If  groups  diverge  within  an  established  caste,  they  become  rec¬ 
ognized  as  sub-castes,  perhaps  finally  to  develop  into  wholly 
separate  castes.  Priests,  nobles,  clerks,  fishermen,  street- 
sweepers  are  castes ;  so  are  the  Parsis ;  so  are  hill  tribes  that 
maintain  their  primitive  customs — the  Dravidian  Todas  for 
instance  are  reckoned  a  high  caste.  Clearly  we  have  here  a 
generic  system,  a  pattern  of  organizing  society,  into  which  every 
sort  of  group  as  it  actually  forms  is  fitted.  Caste  is  a  way  of 
thought  which  the  Hindu  has  tried  to  universalize. 

All  Indian  castes  are  in  theory  strictly  endogamous:  inter¬ 
marriage  is  intolerable.  All  possess  an  intrinsic,  unchangeable 
worth.  Thus  they  automatically  rank  themselves.  Each  pos¬ 
sesses  an  occupation,  a  mode  of  life  and  customs,  a  set  of  pre¬ 
scribed  rituals,  inherently  peculiar  to  it.  The  greater  the  re¬ 
strictions  and  prohibitions  incumbent  upon  it,  the  less  it  relaxes 
to  comfort  and  indifference,  and  the  more  spiritual  it  is,  the 
higher  its  grade.  In  consequence  it  is  also  the  more  pollutable, 
and  so  its  restrictions  are  drawn  the  closer  The  wider  the  gap 
of  non-intercourse,  of  non-contact  with  lower  castes,  the  greater 
becomes  its  purity.  Caste  observance  is  thus  a  virtue,  an  aid  to 
religion  and  morality ;  breaking  caste  an  ultimate  indecency ; 
the  offspring  of  inter-caste  unions  necessarily  lower  than  either 
parent,  and  their  descendants,  unless  from  matings  with  their 
own  miserable  kind,  lower  still,  in  an  infinitely  descending  series. 
There  is  no  elevating  a  caste.  The  very  attempt  to  rise  is  a 
vice  that  brings  degradation  as  a  result,  since  castes  are  eternal, 
founded  in  nature,  absolute,  so  that  alteration  is  of  necessity  a 
sullying. 

Such  is  the  Hindu  scheme — which  in  actuality  is  lived  up  to 
in  no  single  point.  Perverse  as  the  system  seems  to  men  reared 
in  other  cultures,  it  must  be  admitted  to  possess  completeness, 


482 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


self-consistency,  and  the  desire  to  preserve  inward  worth.  It 
differs  from  the  basic  assumptions  of  our  civilization  in  that 
it  sees  value  as  something  already  existing  and  therefore  to  be 
maintained,  not  to  be  created ;  it  tries  to  fit  life  into  a  theoretical 
pattern;  it  is  futureless.  Yet  all  the  facts  show  that  as  his¬ 
torical  realities  castes  have  changed  enormously  and  are  chang¬ 
ing  now.  Obviously  therefore  each  generation  ignores  the 
changes  last  made  and  repeats  its  insistence  on  caste  perpetuity 
and  unalterability.  Such  is  the  hold  of  patterns  on  men ’s  minds. 

The  theorizing  which  the  Hindu  does  about  caste  is  char¬ 
acteristic  of  him  in  all  cultural  manifestations.  The  relation 

\ 

which  can  be  thought  out  between  one  fact  or  act  and  others,  the 
compartment  to  which  it  can  be  assigned  in  a  system,  are  of 
more  interest  to  him,  as  compared  with  the  fact  itself,  than  to 
peoples  of  other  civilizations.  Hence  philosophy  has  flourished 
in  India,  but  native  history  has  been  inadequate  and  disorderly. 
Hence  too  the  abstract  sciences  of  logic,  mathematics,  grammar 
enjoyed  an  early  original  development,  equal  for  a  long  time 
and  in  part  antecedent  to  that  which  they  attained  in  the  West. 
On  the  other  hand  the  astronomical  and  still  more  the  physical 
and  biological  sciences  remained  backward :  they  were  concerned 
with  concrete  objects.  The  Hindus  seem  never  to  have  made 
a  move  of  their  own  toward  devising  a  system  of  writing;  but 
once  the  Semitic  alphabet  had  been  introduced,  they  modified, 
expanded,  and  rearranged  it  into  a  more  logical  scheme,  a  more 
consistent  one  phonetically,  than  any  other  people  has  given  it 
(§  146).  It  is  probably  no  accident  that  chess  and  our  “  Arabic” 
position  numerals  with  a  symbol  for  zero  (§  109)  are  Hindu 
inventions,  and  that  it  is  only  in  India  that  priests  have  for 
age  after  age  been  ranked  higher  than  rulers. 

It  is  natural  that  a  culture  of  such  inclinations  should  exalt 
the  mind  and  soul  above  the  body.  Hence  the  extraordinary 
development  of  asceticism  in  Indian  religion ;  its  deep  pessimism 
as  regards  life  on  this  earth ;  its  insistence  on  the  superior 
reality  of  soul,  with  which  is  connected  the  universal  assump¬ 
tion  of  rebirths;  the  working  out  of  a  system  of  unescapable 
moral  causality  called  karma  in  place  of  a  scheme  of  mechanical 
causation;  the  tendencies  toward  pantheistic  identification  of 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


483 


soul  and  God,  or  atheistic  denial  of  divinity  as  distinct  from 
soul;  and  the  thoroughly  anti-materialistic  bent  of  almost  all 
Hindu  philosophy.  It  is  also  intelligible  that  these  qualities 
should  have  imparted  to  Indian  religion  a  superior  degree  of 
spiritual  intensity  which  was  appreciated  by  the  nations  to  the 
north  and  east  when  Buddhism  was  presented  to  them,  and 
caused  them  to  embrace  it. 

Like  Christianity,  however,  Buddhism  found  no  permanent 
favor  among  the  people  and  in  the  land  of  its  origin.  It  flour¬ 
ished  in  India  for  a  time,  but  was  rarely  looked  upon  as  more 
than  a  sect ;  after  something  over  a  thousand  years  it  died  out 
completely,  except  in  Ceylon,  at  the  very  period  that  its  hold 
on  non-Indian  nations  to  the  north  and  east  was  strengthening. 
Its  place  was  taken  in  India  by  the  miscellaneous  assemblage 
of  cults,  all  theoretically  recogizing  Brahman  ascendancy,  that 
in  the  aggregate  constitute  what  is  known  as  Hinduism.  Hin¬ 
duism  is  not  a  religion  in  the  sense  that  Christianity,  Moham¬ 
medanism,  Buddhism  are  “religions.”  It  recognizes  no  per¬ 
sonal  founder,  no  head  or  establishment ;  it  tends  to  exclude 
foreigners  rather  than  to  convert  them ;  it  is  national  instead 
of  universal.  It  accepts  and  reinforces  the  existing  institutions 
of  its  particular  culture:  caste,  for  instance,  which  Buddhism 
tried  to  transcend.  Hinduism  is  therefore  comparable  to  the 
ancient  Greek  and  early  west  Asiatic  religions  in  consisting  of 
a  series  of  locally  or  tribally  different  cults  never  integrated 
or  fully  harmonized,  conscious  and  tolerant  of  one  another,  rest¬ 
ing  on  common  assumptions  and  similar  in  content,  everywhere 
in  accord  with  tradition  and  usage,  resistive  to  organization 
into  a  larger  whole  but  tied  into  a  certain  unity  through  reflect¬ 
ing  a  more  or  less  common  civilization. 

Hinduism  is  also  comparable  to  Confucianism  and  Shintoism 
with  this  difference.  These  grew  up  analogously,  but  early 
became  associated  with  the  central  government  or  imperial 
authority,  to  which  India  never  attained.  They  gradually  be¬ 
came  official  religions,  as  which  they  survive;  such  religious 
piety  as  the  population  of  China  and  Japan  experiences  finding 
its  outlet  chiefly  through  Buddhism.  Buddhism  may  be  said 
to  have  failed  in  India  because  it  aimed  at  being  a  world  re- 


484 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


ligion ;  because  it  tried  to  be  international  instead  of  national, 
to  overlie  all  cultures  instead  of  identifying  itself  with  one. 
The  Hindu  like  the  Jew  preferred  remaining  within  the  limits 
of  his  nationality  and  particular  civilization. 

259.  Relations  Between  India  and  the  Outer  World 

The  first  culture  influence  whose  entry  into  India  can  be 
traced  in  any  detail  was  that  carried  by  the  Vedic  Aryans  from 
the  northwest.  In  fact,  as  already  mentioned,  more  is  known 
about  this  importation  than  of  what  it  encountered  in  India. 
In  the  post-Vedic  period,  the  introduction  of  the  Semitic 
alphabet  suggests  that  other  cultural  ingredients  also  flowed 
into  India  from  the  west  without  direct  record  being  preserved 
of  their  transmission.  The  Persian  and  Macedonian  conquests 
extended  only  over  the  westernmost  margin  of  India  and  were 
of  little  direct  influence.  But  the  latter  was  followed  by  a 
semi-Hellenization  of  southwestern  Asia,  including  for  instance 
the  establishment  of  a  Grseco-Bactrian  kingdom  in  southern 
Turkistan  and  Afghanistan,  adjacent  to  India;  and  for  several 
centuries  a  stream  of  Greek  culture  elements  trickled  into  the 
heart  of  India.  Sculpture,  architecture,  astronomy,  drama, 
coinage,  derived  new  impetus,  in  some  cases  even  their  origin, 
from  this  source.  In  some  instances  the  Hindus  were  no  more 
than  copiers  of  Hellenistic  models :  Greek  hangs  and  folds  were 
given  to  sculptured  garments,  Greek  astronomical  measurements 
taken  over  without  change.  Yet  as  the  centuries  wore  on  and 
new  imports  along  these  lines  lessened  and  then  died  out,  the 
introduced  elements  became  more  deeply  incorporated  into 
Indian  civilization,  modified  and  encrusted  more  and  more 
heavily  by  distinctive  Hindu  styles,  until  now  their  superficial 
appearance  makes  an  impression  of  independent  native  growth. 
The  working  over  of  the  Semitic  alphabet  into  its  Hindu  forms 
may  be  taken  as  typical  of  the  nature  and  degree  of  this 
remodeling  of  the  Hellenistic  culture  imports. 

Soon  after  700  A.D.  commenced  a  series  of  Mohammedan 
invasions  and  conquests — Arab,  Afghan,  and  Mongol-Turkish — 
also  from  the  northwest,  and  of  course  accompanied  by  a  new 
series  of  culture  influences — firearms,  for  instance,  and  the  true 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY  485 

arch — which  in  their  turn  underwent  absorption  and  partial 
transformation. 

The  flow  of  culture  between  India  and  the  Mediterranean 
world  has  not  been  wholly  eastward.  Cotton;  the  common 
domestic  fowl ;  probably  the  buffalo  and  rice ;  perhaps  asceticism, 
monastic  life,  and  certain  mystic  points  of  view ;  position 
numerals  with  zero;  chess;  and  some  of  the  concepts  of  modern 
philology,  were  transmitted  westward.  Eastern  Africa  was 
influenced,  largely  through  the  medium  of  Arab  sea  trade.  To¬ 
wards  the  north  and  northeast  as  far  as  Mongolia  and  Japan, 
India  has  been  a  dispenser  of  culture  content  and  has  taken 
little  in  return.  Toward  the  southeast,  Indian  influence  has 
been  the  largest  component  in  the  civilization  of  Indo-China 
and  the  East  Indian  archipelago,  which  as  regards  their  higher 
attainments  may  be  regarded  as  cultural  dependencies  or  ex¬ 
tensions  of  India. 


260.  Indo-China 

Farther  India  or  Indo-China,  the  great  southeastern  peninsula 
of  Asia,  falls  somewhat  short  of  India  and  China  in  area,  is 
less  densely  inhabited,  and  contains  a  population  which  is  of 
definitely  Mongolian  type  except  for  some  scattered  fragments 
of  hill  tribes.  On  the  basis  of  speech,  four  groups  are  to  be 
distinguished.  In  the  southwestern  and  southeastern  corners  of 
the  peninsula,  in  the  former  kingdoms  of  Pegu  and  Cambodia, 
are  the  Mon  and  the  Khmer,  certainly  related  to  each  other  and 
perhaps  distantly  connected  wtih  the  Malayo-Polynesian  family. 
On  the  east  are  the  Anamese,  with  a  monosyllabic,  tonal  lan¬ 
guage  whose  affiliations  are  doubtful.  It  contains  a  Chinese 
element,  but  perhaps  by  absorption  rather  than  by  original  con¬ 
nection.  The  center  and  west  of  Indo-China  are  occupied  re¬ 
spectively  by  the  peoples  of  the  T  ’ai  or  Siamese-Shan  and 
Tibeto-Burman  groups,  both  probably  collateral  offshoots  with 
Chinese  from  what  may  be  called  the  original  Sinitic  stock 
(§50).  The  movement  of  population  has  clearly  been  out  of 
inner  Asia  into  the  peninsula.  The  Mon-Khmer  are  situated 
like  half  submerged  remnants.  Burma  on  the  map  hangs  from 
Tibet  like  the  outgrowth  that  it  probably  is.  Seven  centuries 


486 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


ago,  the  T’ai  empire  was  centered  in  Yunnan,  in  southwestern 
China.  Siam  represents  a  southward  shift  of  the  seat  of  T’ai 
power  after  Mongol  conquest  (Pig.  12). 

The  Malay  peninsula  is  Siamese  in  its  narrow  or  neck  por¬ 
tion.  The  head  is  inhabited  by  three  racial  groups.  The 
Semang  in  the  interior  are  pure  Negritos.  The  Sakai  or  Senoi, 
also  in  the  interior,  are  short  in  stature,  dark,  and  broad 
nosed,  but  wavy-haired.  They  resemble  a  series  of  hill  tribes 
scattered  from  India  to  the  East  Indies:  the  Yedda  of  Ceylon, 
the  Irula  and  other  tribes  of  southern  India,  the  Toala  of 
Celebes  (§  27,  257).  Perhaps  the  Kolarians  or  Munda-Kol  of 
central  India,  the  Moi  and  other  groups  of  Indo-China,  the 
Nicobar  islanders,  and  certain  nationalities  of  Sumatra  are  also 
to  be  reckoned  as  partial  representatives  of  the  same  type.  This 
race,  if  it  is  such,  is  generalized,  with  certain  Caucasian  and 
other  Negroid  but  few  Mongoloid  resemblances.  It  is  perhaps  to 
be  classed  as  Australoid,  and  has  been  named  Indo- Australoid. 
The  third  racial  group  of  the  peninsula  are  the  Malays,  who,  at 
least  in  large  part,  are  emigrants  in  comparatively  recent  cen¬ 
turies  from  Sumatra.  Culturally  the  Malay  peninsula  belongs 
with  the  East  Indies  rather  than  with  Indo-China. 

Three  main  layers  of  civilization  are  evident  in  Indo-China. 
The  old  native  culture  was  allied  to  that  of  the  East  Indies  and 
the  islands  beyond — whatever  the  speech  may  have  been.  Even 
to-day  backward  tribes  of  both  regions,  especially  inland,  often 
show  strikingly  similar  customs :  the  use  of  bark  cloth,  for  in¬ 
stance,  separate  houses  for  unmarried  men  and  girls.  This  cul¬ 
ture  remains  fairly  well  defined  in  spots  as  far  west  as  Assam 
and  the  Kolarian  region  of  India. 

The  two  other  civilizations  have  flowed  in  from  India  and 
China.  Practically  everything  of  higher  culture  in  Indo-China 
traces  back  directly  to  these  two  countries.  The  Indian  influ¬ 
ence  has  been  both  wider  and  deeper  than  the  Chinese.  It 
brought  in  Buddhism  and  writing,  and  colored  art  and  archi¬ 
tecture.  This  Indian  influence  began  more  than  two  thousand 
years  ago,  and  while  it  may  have  weakened  somewhat  after 
India’s  return  from  Buddhism  to  Brahmanism,  it  has  never 
ceased.  As  there  were  no  notable  Indian  conquests,  this  in¬ 
fluence  is  an  excellent  example  of  the  normal,  gradual  type  of 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


487 


cultural  pervading.  Chinese  contacts  are  equally  old  as  the 
Indian,  but  have  mostly  remained  confined  to  the  area  adjacent 
to  the  Middle  Kingdom.  The  Anamese  have  adopted  the  Chi¬ 
nese  system  of  family  names,  Confucianism,  literary  examina¬ 
tions,  and  the  like,  sometimes  more  largely  as  a  conscious  en¬ 
deavor  than  in  fact. 


261.  Oceania 

Prom  the  Malay  peninsula  the  vast  island  region  of  Oceania 
stretches  eastward  to  within  two  thousand  miles  of  America. 
Australia  deserves  to  be  set  apart  on  account  of  its  continental 
size,  isolation,  and  ancient  biological  independence.  Oceania 
proper  falls  into  five  natural  divisions.  These  are  Indonesia  or 
Malaysia  1  or  the  East  Indies,  where  large  islands  are  scattered 
among  many  small  ones ;  Papua  or  New  Guinea ;  and  three  tracts 
of  relatively  small,  widely  separated  islafids  rising  out  of  the 
depths  of  the  Pacific :  Melanesia,  a  broken  chain  southeastward 
from  New  Guinea ;  Micronesia,  to  the  northeast ;  and  Polynesia, 
far  eastward.  Two  primary  facts  stand  out  in  regard  to  the 
inhabitants.  Papua  and  Melanesia  are  peopled  with  blacks, 
the  Oceanic  Negroids;  the  other  regions  have  brown  inhabitants 
of  prevailingly  Mongoloid  affiliations.  Linguistically  a  single 
fundamental  speech,  the  Malayo-Polynesian,  prevails  over  all  of 
Oceania  except  Papua,  whose  tongues  so  far  as  known  fail  to 
connect  with  any  others  or  with  one  another.  Large  unanswered 
problems  inhere  in  these  distributions :  how  the  Oceanic  Negroids 
are  related  to  those  of  Africa,  from  whom  they  are  so  remote 
geographically  but  whom  they  resemble  so  strikingly  in  type; 
how  the  black  Melanesians  came  to  talk  dialects  of  Malayo- 
Polynesian,2  which  otherwise  is  a  speech  of  brown  peoples. 

1  The  Malays  proper,  whose  home  until  the  twelfth  or  thirteenth  century 
lay  in  Sumatra,  are  to  be  distinguished  as  a  particular  people  from  the 
Malaysian  or  East  Indian  group  which  we  name  after  them,  in  the  same 
way  that  the  Mongols  are  a  nation  which  is  but  one  of  many  that  con¬ 
stitute  the  Mongolian  race  and  Mongoloid  stock. 

2  Several  languages  in  the  interior  of  the  larger  Melanesian  islands  have 
been  described  as  non-Malayo-Polynesian.  If  they  confirm  as  such,  they 
may  be  regarded  as  survivals  of  a  group  of  languages  which  were  the 
original  tongues  of  the  Melanesians  and  are  probably  to  be  classed  with 
the  Papuan  languages.  The  Malayo-Polynesian  speech  of  the  majority  of 
the  modern  Melanesians  may  in  that  case  be  considered  as  having  been 


488 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


More  in  detail*  there  are  questions  such  as  where  and  how  the 
Polynesians  developed  their  somewhat  aberrant  racial  charac¬ 
teristics  ;  what  may  be  the  relations  of  a  more  and  a  less  spe¬ 
cifically  Mongoloid,  a  broader  and  a  longer  headed  strain,  among 
the  East  Indians;  and  whether  the  latter  of  these  connects 
racially  with  the  ‘  Mndo- Australians.  ” 

262.  The  East  Indies 

Culturally,  the  East  Indies  are  the  most  diverse  of  the 
Oceanic  regions,  in  that  the  various  islands,  and  within  the 
larger  islands  adjacent  districts,  sometimes  contain  populations 
heavily  tinctured  with  Asiatic  civilization,  sometimes  tribes 
whose  customs  are  far  more  aboriginal.  However,  there  is  no 
people  in  the  East  Indies  that  has  wholly  escaped  the  influence 
of  Asiatic  culture :  the  difference  is  always  one  of  degree, 
although  ranging  from  what  is  currently  called  semi-civilization 
to  savagery.  The  profoundest  influence  has  been  exerted  by 
India.  This  began  nearly  two  thousand  years  ago  and  remained 
active  for  over  a  thousand ;  it  introduced  architecture,  sculp¬ 
ture,  writing,  monarchy,  religion,  iron,  cotton,  and  a  host  of 
other  elements  of  higher  culture.  The  earlier  Indian  influence 
was  Buddhist  and  its  seat  of  power  centered  in  southern 
Sumatra;  the  later  was  Brahman  and  reached  its  zenith  in 
Java.  The  number  of  immigrants  was  probably  small,  their 
effect  enormous.  A  group  of  refugees,  a  younger  son  of  a 
royal  house  with  his  retinue,  a  band  of  adventurers,  would 
found  a  colony,  sometimes  conquering  the  natives,  sometimes 
attaching  them  peacefully  to  their  leadership,  and  soon  a  little 
kingdom  was  flourishing,  which  in  time  sent  out  other  offshoots 
or  absorbed  its  rivals  until  its  name  commanded  respect  and 
tribute  for  long  distances  across  the  sea.  It  was  a  procedure 
which  the  Mohammedanized  Malays  later  repeated  over  the  East 
Indies,  and  which  on  the  Asiatic  continent  some  centuries 
earlier  had  carried  Chinese  civilization  far  to  the  north  and 
south  of  its  original  limits,  and  Aryan  speech  and  culture 

taken  over  through  contacts  with  brown  peoples  of  a  higher  culture.  A 
similar  situation  exists  in  Madagascar,  which  in  race  is  predominantly 
Negroid,  but  whose  speech  is  purely  and  whose  culture  largely  Malaysian. 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


489 


throughout  India.  The  kingdoms  struggled,  throve,  decayed, 
and  succeeded  one  another;  the  permanent  aspect  of  the  process 
was  the  ever  deeper  though  irregular  permeation  of  life  with 
new  arts  and  ideas. 

The  influence  of  China  came  later  and  was  less  than  that  of 
India.  In  the  thirteenth  century  the  Sumatran  Malays  were 
converted  to  Mohammedanism  and  began  a  career  of  expansion 
which  culminated  in  the  complete  conquest  of  Java  by  1478, 
carried  their  faith  over  much  of  the  area,  and  was  checked  only 
by  the  advent  of  the  Spaniards,  Portugese,  and  Dutch.  Moham¬ 
medanism,  besides  its  cult  and  law,  introduced  some  new  ele¬ 
ments  of  culture,  such  as  firearms;  but  perhaps  its  most  impor¬ 
tant  effect  was  that  it  put  an  end  to  the  growth  of  the  specifically 
Indian  type  of  influence  in  Malaysia. 

Underlying  these  strains  from  the  historic  civilizations  of 
Asia  was  a  semi-primitive  culture,  many  of  whose  elements  were 
shared  by  the  East  Indians  with  the  Indo-Chinese  and  Melane¬ 
sians,  and  which  in  part  can  be  traced  from  India  to  Polynesia. 
This  Indo-Oceanic  culture  included  agriculture — with  rice  and 
sugar  cane  in  Malaysia  and  on  the  mainland ;  domestic  animals 
of  its  own — the  buffalo,  pig,  and  fowl — different  from  those  of 
north  and  west  Asia;  pottery,  bark  clothing,  possibly  bronze, 
though  if  so  this  was  intrusive ;  men ’s  clubs  or  sleeping  houses ; 
a  non-political  organization  of  society  on  the  basis  of  kinship 
and  tribal  community;  and  such  practices  as  head  hunting  and 
skull  cult.  The  employment  of  bamboo  and  rattan  was  a  prime 
characteristic,  and  seems  to  have  prevented  a  vigorous  stone  age 
from  having  flourished  in  the  East  Indies  and  adjacent  regions. 
Bamboo  is  perhaps  capable  of  serving  more  different  cultural 
uses  than  any  one  other  plant.  It  makes  satisfactory  houses, 
rafts,  knives,  spears,  bows,  arrows,  blowguns,  textiles,  cooking 
vessels,  receptacles,  and  musical  instruments,  with  a  minimum 
of  labor.  It  is  best  worked  with  metal  tools,  and  has  therefore 
perhaps  experienced  its  most  thorough  utilization  at  the  hands 
of  peoples  too  backward  to  secure  a  large  supply  of  metals  for 
themselves  but  able  to  obtain  a  limited  stock  of  iron  from  their 
neighbors.  Nevertheless  even  the  prehistoric  culture  of  the  re¬ 
gion  is  likely  to  have  made  large  use  of  bamboo. 

This  primitive  culture  of  course  varied  locally.  It  was  also 


490 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


not  of  unitary  origin.  It  certainly  contained  elements  that  were 
older  than  others,  or  that  originated  in  different  parts  of  the 
area.  Rice  and  fowls  for  instance  are  likely  to  be  more  recent 
than  skull  cult  and  use  of  bamboo.  The  culture  may  even  re¬ 
solve,  when  it  shall  have  been  analyzed  more  intensively,  Into 
two  or  more  fairly  separable  strata.  But,  taken  in  block,  it 
must  once  have  prevailed  with  fundamental  similarity  from 
eastern  India  well  out  into  the  Pacific,  since  everywhere  within 
this  tract  there  are  to-day  hill  and  jungle  peoples  whose  culture 
conforms  at  least  roughly  to  the  type.  It  is  necessary  to  re¬ 
member,  however,  that  nowhere  does  this  culture  survive  in 
purity.  To  some  degree  the  influence  of  the  greater  Asiatic 
civilizations  has  made  itself  felt  among  the  most  aloof  tribes. 
They  mix  a  few  Hindu  religious  concepts  with  their  head  hunt¬ 
ing  rituals,  for  instance,  or  know  how  to  forge  imported  iron, 
or  even  grow  American  maize.  They  have  everywhere  been 
exposed  in  some  degree  to  contact  with  cultures  of  subsequent 
level.  Thus  it  is  characteristic  that  the  Negritos,  whose  scat¬ 
tered  distribution  indicates  that  they  may  have  been  the  first 
inhabitants  of  the  East  Indies,  possess  a  debased  or  parasitic 
Malaysian  culture  instead  of  a  specific  Negrito  one. 

263.  Melanesia  and  Polynesia 

As  one  passes  out  from  the  East  Indies  into  New  Guinea  and 
Melanesia,  the  mass  effect  of  Hindu  and  Mohammedan  civili¬ 
zation  comes  to  an  end,  and  the  primitive  culture  that  has  been 
outlined  is  altered.  Metals,  rice,  the  buffalo,  disappear.  The 
growing  of  taro  and  other  tropical  plants,  the  pig  and  fowl, 
the  use  of  bamboo  where  nature  permits,  skull  cult  or  canni¬ 
balism,  remain.  Other  features,  such  as  the  totemic  and  matri- 
linear  moiety  organization  of  society  and  adolescence  rites  for 
girls,  obtrude,  and  are  sometimes  elaborately  developed.  How 
far  such  traits  represent  secondary  local  developments  or  on  the 
other  hand  survivals  from  a  Negroid  culture  phase  anterior  to 
that  of  primitive  Malaysian-Southeast  Asiatic  culture,  is  not 
clear.  Local  diversity  of  custom  is  unusually  great  in  both 
New  Guinea  and  Melanesia. 

Micronesia  and  Polynesia  present  a  different  although  allied 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


491 


•  _ 

set  of  problems.  The  Polynesians  in  particular  manifest  a  re¬ 
markable  uniformity  of  speech  and,  on  the  whole,  of  culture, 
especially  in  view  of  the  thousands  of  miles  of  ocean  through 
which  their  island  groups  are  dispersed.  This  uniformity  sug¬ 
gests  that  the  language  and  culture  became  characterized  in  a 
limited  area  from  which  they  spread  over  Polynesia  after  or 
while  contact  with  the  remainder  of  the  world  was  lost.  But  it 
is  difficult  to  settle  even  tentatively  on  such  an  area  of  original 
characterization  because  certain  sides  of  Polynesian  culture  are 
relatively  high  and  carry  suggestions  of  Asia,  whereas  other 
elements  are  lacking  which  would  be  expectable  if  higher 
Asiatic  influences  had  ever  carried  to  the  ancestral  Polynesians. 
Royal  lineage,  for  example,  bears  to  the  Polynesians  a  powerful 
implication  of  sanctity,  of  descent  from  the  gods,  such  as  is 
unparalleled  among  any  truly  primitive  people.  Religion  and 
mythology  also  contain  an  abstract,  spiritual  strain  that  is 
almost  reminiscent  of  Buddhism.  Yet  there  seems  no  single 
specific  idea  or  name  that  can  be  traced  to  an  Asiatic  source ; 
and  the  essentially  ancient  ideas  of  magic  and  taboo  are  strong 
— the  word  taboo  itself  is  Polynesian.  There  are  structures  and 
sculpture  in  stone,  sometimes  monumental,  but  never  more  than 
barbaric  in  quality.  The  absence  of  metals  may  mean  little, 
since  they  might  have  been  possessed  but  the  art  have  been  lost 
in  the  island  habitat,  often  coralline.  Yet  pottery,  the  bow  and 
arrow,  the  men’s  club  house,  the  clan  or  moiety  type  of  society, 
are  also  wanting  or  weakly  developed.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
dog,  pig,  and  fowl,  cultivated  plants  like  taro,  bark  cloth,  can¬ 
nibalism,  and  human  sacrifice  are  shared  with  the  island  regions 
to  the  west. 

The  various  Polynesians  possess  genealogies  and  often  migra¬ 
tion  traditions  which  on  comparison,  and  after  computation  of 
the  number  of  generations,  seem  to  point  to  two  waves  of  migra¬ 
tion,  both  within  the  Christian  era,  perhaps  about  the  fifth 
and  tenth  centuries  respectively.  The  traditions  fail,  however, 
to  throw  clear  light  on  the  area  of  origin,  since  they  attribute 
this  either  to  Hawaiki,  which  may  be  either  Java  or  a  mythical 
land,  or  crisscross  back  and  forth  among  the  island  groups 
within  Polynesia.  Something  of  the  mysteriousness  which  the 
discoverers  felt  continues  to  attach  to  the  origin  and  history  of 


492 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


this  people,  and  is  deepened  by  the  fact  that  the  affiliations  of 
their  racial  type  remain  ambiguous. 

264.  Australia 

The  human  history  of  Australia  is  as  detached  from  that  of 
the  remainder  of  the  world  as  its  biological  history.  The  race 
is  distinctive :  sub-Negroid,  it  might  be  called.  The  languages 
relate  to  no  other.  The  culture  is  primitive  and  well  charac¬ 
terized.  The  isolation  of  Australia  was  aided  by  the  fact  that 
the  one  approach  to  it  other  than  by  a  sea-voyage  of  some  length, 
the  approach  across  Torres  Straits,  was  blocked  by  New 
Guinea,  the  area  of  most  backward  culture  in  Oceania.  The 
Papuans  did  not  possess  enough  civilization  to  hand  on  much 
to  the  Australians ;  but  they  prevented  higher  elements  from 
Asia  from  flowing  to  them. 

The  Australians  lacked  not  only  all  agriculture  and  domestic 
animals,  but  pottery,  the  bow,  and  apparently  the  harpoon. 
These  deficiencies  would  at  once  stamp  their  culture  as  pre- 
Neolithic  in  type,  were  it  not  that  they  grind  some  stone 
implements. 

All  in  all,  Australian  culture  is  unusually  meager  on  the 
industrial  and  economic  side.  Houses,  clothing,  weapons,  boats, 
tools,  are  most  scantily  developed:  often  lacking  and  always 
rude.  This  poverty  of  Australian  material  culture  cannot  be 
explained  wholly  from  the  prevailing  desert  character  of  a  large 
part  of  the  continent,  since  the  natives  of  the  most  favored 
regions  were  not  appreciably  better  off  as  regards  variety  of 
arts  conducive  to  comfort. 

Social  organization  is  much  more  complicated  than  the  arts. 
Most  of  the  Australians  are  divided  into  moieties,  which  fre¬ 
quently  are  subdivided  into  four  classes  or  eight-sub-classes,  all 
exogamous.  A  frequent  peculiarity  is  that  the  child  belongs  to 
a  different  class  from  both  its  parents.  So  far  as  the  moiety 
is  concerned,  custom  varies  locally  as  to  whether  the  child  is 
born  into  the  mother’s  or  father’s  side  of  the  community.  Fre¬ 
quently  there  are  also  hereditary  totemic  groups.  These  may  be 
subdivisions  of  the  moieties  or  descend  independently  of  them. 
A  few  tribes,  chiefly  in  southeastern  Australia,  are  without 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


493 


moieties  or  classes;  some  are  totemless  (Pig.  29).  The  moiety 
scheme  of  course  prescribes  equally  that  one  must  marry  into 
the  opposite  moiety  and  out  of  one’s  own.  The  extension  of  this 
principle  to  classes  and  sub-classes  still  farther  limits  the  group 
among  whom  marriage  is  permissible,  thereby  emphasizing  its 
prescriptive  character.  Where  the  individual  belongs  to  a  third 
or  different  class  from  his  parents,  his  wife  must  come  from 
the  fourth  or  remaining  one,  and  his  children  will  belong  again 
to  the  first  or  second,  according  as  moiety  descent  is  patrilinear 
or  matrilinear.  Consequently  he  has  blood  relatives  in  every 
class;  and  conversely  all  the  members  of  each  class  stand  in  a 
certain  defined  kinship  to  every  individual  in  the  community, 
according  to  their  respective  sex  and  age.  This  means  not  only 
that  certain  relatives  are  within  the  absolutely  prohibited  de¬ 
grees,  but  that  others  are  prescriptive  spouses.  These  are  only 
a  few  of  the  innumerable  ramifications  and  variations  of  Aus¬ 
tralian  social  organization. 

The  origin  of  these  social  schemes  is  in  dispute.  Some  eth¬ 
nologists  -interpret  them  as  original  inventions  of  the  Aus¬ 
tralians,  manifestations  of  their  peculiar  primitiveness.  Others 
look  upon  then  as  evolved  somewhere  in  the  region  between 
India  and  Melanesia  where  analogous  institutions  are  frequently 
encountered,  and  as  carried  into  Australia  by  diffusion  or  migra¬ 
tions.  The  contiguity  of  Australia  to  the  Indo-Melanesian  area 
of  totems,  moieties,  unilateral  descent,  etc.,  is  not  likely  to  be 
wholly  a  matter  of  coincidence  (§  110).  Moreover,  the  strongest 
development  of  this  type  of  organization  within  Australia  is  on 
the  whole  in  the  northern  part,  the  tribes  that  show  least  or 
none  of  it  being  in  the  south,  farthest  from  the  presumptive 
entrance  via  New  Guinea.  On  the  other  hand,  certain  features 
of  the  systems  are  confined  to  Australia:  the  classes  and  sub¬ 
classes,  the  occasional  coexistence  but  non-relation  of  totems  and 
moieties,  for  instance.  These  variations  must  have  originated 
among  the  Australians;  and  this  raises  the  question  whether 
many  other  traits  may  also  be  indigenous.  The  most  probable 
course  of  events  would  appear  to  have  been  the  importation  of 
the  basic  pattern  of  exogamy,  followed  by  its  diffusion  with 
numerous  new  growths  in  Australia. 

Religious  status  fits  the  same  interpretation.  Ceremonial 


494 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


practices  are  often  both  abundant  and  elaborate,  but  ring  the 
changes  on  fundamentally  primitive  concepts  like  imitative 
magic,  bewitching,  taboo,  adolescence  and  other  crisis  rites. 
These  concepts,  as  implicit  in  a  series  of  customary  acts,  might 
all  have  been  imported  at  a  very  early  time ;  in  fact  in  the  main 
very  likely  go  back  to  Palaeolithic  culture.  On  this  foundation 
the  Australians  developed  their  locally  varying  superstructures 
of  religion,  which  often  differ  conspicuously  in  specific  content, 
and  into  which  they  poured  a  notable  quantity  of  imagination 
or  social  creativeness.  They  evolved  nothing  of  a  fundamentally 
“ higher”  type  of  cult  because  of  their  unusual  degree  of  in¬ 
sulation  from  all  the  more  important  later  streams  of  culture. 
There  occurred  no  significant  import  of  either  new  religious 
elements  as  such,  nor  of  material  factors  like  agriculture  which 
might  have  raised  the  economic  status,  increased  the  population, 1 
forced  a  political  organization,  and  ultimately  led  to  the  growth 
of  basically  new  religious  patterns  among  the  Australians 
themselves. 

To  return  to  material  culture,  it  may  be  noted  that  the 
boomerang  groups  with  Australian  rites  and  social  organization 
in  being  a  highly  specialized  form  of  a  fundamentally  simple 
and  presumably  early  type,  namely  the  throwing  stick  or  flat 
club.  Crescentic  throwing  sticks  are  in  use  in  Asia  and 
America:  they  fly  faster  and  straighter  than  rod  shaped  or 
knobbed  ones.  The  Australians  alone  added  the  twist  which 
gives  the  boomerang  its  peculiar  flight.  They  may  have  been 
led  to  evolve  this  feature  through  not  having  higher  types  of 
weapons  such  as  bows  and  arrows  to  engage  their  interest  and 
energies.  At  any  rate,  the  discovery  of  the  quality  imparted  by 
the  twist  may  have  been  made  by  accident,  such  as  the  warping 
of  an  implement,  and  random  experimenting  may  have  brought 
the  improvements. 

Whether  the  relatively  unimportant  implements  of  ground 
stone  in  Australia  represent  an  invention  made  there  or  should 
be  considered  one  of  the  small  group  of  culture  elements  which 
like  the  moiety  system  may  have  been  imported  subsequently 
to  the  main  stock  of  Australian  culture,  remains  to  be  ascer- 

i  The  population  attained  only  to  a  minority  fraction  of  a  million,  per 
haps  not  over  150,000  all  told. 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


495 


tained.  This  main  stock  is  certainly  ancient,  and  in  its  content 
may  be  regarded  as  approximately  equivalent  to  the  Palaeolithic 
culture  of  Europe  and  probably  connected  with  it  by  an  early 
diffusion;  although  in  the  specific  forms  taken  by  their  cor¬ 
responding  types  the  two  cultures  obviously  differ  greatly,  as 
indeed  the  lapse  of  time  and  stretch  of  distance  between  them 
would  render  inevitable. 

265.  Tasmania 

Tasmania  is  situated  toward  Australia  as  Australia  is  toward 
Asia-Oceania.  It  constitutes  an  ultimate  periphery.  Of  what 
little  culture  Australia  had  received  from  the  remainder  of  the 
hemisphere,  Tasmania  again  received  only  a  part.  The  prevail¬ 
ing  opinion  that  the  Tasmanians  were  the  most  primitive  of 
recent  peoples  is  therefore  probably  justified.  They  lacked 
everything  that  the  Australians  lacked ;  and  in  addition  lacked 
spear-throwers,  boomerangs,  shields,  and  ground  stone  tools. 
They  are  the  one  population  among  whom  it  seems  reasonably 
certain  that  a  culture  of  Palaeolithic  type  was  preserved  unmixed 
until  modern  times.  They  had  chipped  knives,  axes,  scrapers, 
and  similar  tools ;  wooden  spears  and  clubs ;  bark  rafts ;  wind¬ 
break  huts ;  cordage  and  baskets ;  paint ;  ornaments  of  bone  and 
other  animal  parts.  Unfortunately  the  Tasmanians  numbered 
only  a  few  thousands,  died  rapidly  on  contact  with  civilization, 
and  became  extinct  in  the  nineteenth  century  before  scientific 
study  of  their  culture  or  speech  had  been  made.  Their  religion 
and  society  therefore  perished  almost  unrecorded.  Their  racial 
type  is  preserved  in  skeletal  material  and  photographs.  It  is 
clear  that  it  differed  from  that  of  the  Australians.  Their  hair 
was  woolly.  They  have  consequently  sometimes  been  reckoned 
as  Oceanic  Negroes  rather  than  as  an  Australian  sub-type.  It 
is  likely  that  they  represent  the  first  human  strain  to  enter 
Australia,  which  was  later  absorbed  or  exterminated  on  that 
continent  by  the  Australians,  surviving  only  in  the  protected 
island  of  Tasmania. 


496 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


266.  Africa 

Africa  is  the  second  largest  of  the  continents,  the  most  com¬ 
pact  and  least  indented,  and,  except  for  Australia,  the  most 
deficient  in  great  mountain  systems  and  the  most  arid.  The 
only  considerable  forested  area  lies  in  its  west  central  portion; 
the  remainder  ranges  from  parkland  through  steppe  to  desert. 
The  population  is  the  densest  of  any  continent  reckoned  as 
prevailingly  uncivilized :  a  hundred  and  twenty-five  millions  or 
more,  some  ten  to  a  dozen  souls  to  the  square  mile. 

As  regards  its  races,  it  is  important  to  remember  that  the 
northern  third  or  half  of  Africa  is  inhabited  by  native  “whites.” 
There  is  much  confusion  on  this  point.  We  tend  to  say  African 
when  we  mean  Negro.  Until  recently  the  word  Moor  in  north 
European  countries  often  meant  Negro,  although  it  denotes 
Mauretanians,  Moroccans,  who  are  Caucasians.  It  is  true  that 
almost  across  the  breadth  of  Africa  there  is  a  transition  zone 
in  which  it  is  arbitrary  to  classify  the  population  as  definitely 
Negro  or  Caucasian.  But  over  the  vaster  bulk  of  the  continent, 
there  is  never  doubt  as  to  the  substantial  distinctness  of  the 
racial  stocks. 

The  oldest  stone  age  is  well  represented.  Implements  of 
Chellean  type  in  particular  have  been  discovered  in  a  number 
of  areas.  Whether  these  are  contemporary  with  the  Chellean 
remains  of  Europe  is  not  wholly  certain,  since  they  are  gen¬ 
erally  surface  finds.  An  Upper  Palaeolithic  phase,  the  Capsian, 
with  three  sub-periods,  is  well  established  for  North  Africa 
(§215).  It  was  approximately  coeval  with  the  Aurignacian, 
Solutrean,  Magdalenian,  and  probably  Azilian  of  western  Eu¬ 
rope,  and  influenced  them.  Syria  and  Spain  were  largely  Cap¬ 
sian  in  culture.  The  Neolithic  is  less  well  marked  as  a  distinc¬ 
tive  phase  in  Africa;  and  evidences  of  a  separate  Bronze  Age, 
other  than  in  Egypt,  have  nowhere  been  discerned.  There  is  a 
bronze  art  with  casting  in  lost  molds  in  Benin.  This  is  of  un¬ 
determined  origin.  It  may  be  ancient ;  but  so  far  as  can  be  told 
to-day,  iron  came  into  use  in  much  of  Africa  as  early  as  bronze, 
and  is  worked  by  modern  tribes  who  do  not  know  bronze. 
Dolmens  and  other  megalithic  monuments  are  abundant  in  north 
Africa,  absent  south  of  the  Sahara.  Some  of  them  are  later 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


497 


than  the  similar  European  megaliths,  since  iron  horse-bits  have 
been  found  associated  with  them.  It  is  evident  from  this  sum¬ 
mary  that  Europe  and  Africa  have  been  closely  associated  in 
their  prehistoric  culture,  especially  in  its  remote  stages.  Two 
sets  of  fossil  human  remains  corroborate  the  connection:  Gri¬ 
maldi  man  of  Italy  was  pre-Negroid  in  type,  Rhodesian  man 
more  or  less  Neandertaloid. 

Iron  is  smelted,  worked,  and  used  throughout  Africa  except 
among  the  dwarf  tribes.  Apparatus  and  technique  are  usually 
simple,  but  efficient.  Smiths  often  constitute  a  caste,  sometimes 
a  wandering  one.  Some  tribes  rank  them  highly,  others  repute 
them  wizards,  nearly  all  accord  them  a  special  social  position. 
There  is  no  other  area  so  large  and  culturally  so  backward  as 
Africa  south  of  the  Mohammedan  belt,  in  which  an  iron  im 
dustry  flourishes.  The  existence  of  the  art  therefore  raises  a 
problem.  Some  have  thought  that  its  origin  was  indigenous, 
that  perhaps  even  Egypt  derived  its  knowledge  of  iron  from 
Negro  peoples.  On  the  whole,  however,  it  is  much  more  probable 
that  the  reverse  holds.  In  the  more  than  three  thousand  years 
since  iron  was  worked  in  Egypt,  the  process  could  readily  have 
been  transmitted  through  the  continent.  The  long  lapse  of  time, 
the  distances  traversed,  the  comparative  cultural  backwardness 
of  central  and  south  Africa,  would  allow  for,  in  fact  would 
almost  dictate,  both  the  simplicity  and  the  specializations  of 
the  technique. 


267.  Egyptian  Radiations 

Ancient  Egyptian  influences  have  penetrated  Africa  more 
significantly  than  has  generally  been  thought.  It  is  only 
recently  that  a  beginning  has  been  made  in  tracing  them  out  in 
detail  in  the  Nile  Sudan.  For  so  intensive  a  civilization  as  that 
of  Egypt  to  exist  in  juxtaposition  to  the  southeastern  Hamitic 
tribes  and  the  Negroes  for  five  or  six  thousand  years  without 
radiating  innumerable  elements  of  culture  into  their  life  would 
be  unparalleled.  In  fact  the  dynastic  Egyptians  used  materials 
like  ostrich  feathers  that  were  imported  from  far  south,  and 
depicted  Negroid  physical  types.  The  trade  and  association 
involved  must  have  flowed  both  ways.  The  elements  most 


498 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


typical  of  Egyptian  civilization,  and  its  fabric  and  organiza¬ 
tion,  need  by  no  means  have  been  imparted  along  with  the 
elements  that  were  transmitted.  The  fact  that  they  were  not 
seems  to  be  what  has  delayed  wide  recognition  of  Egyptian 
influence  in  Negro  Africa.  The  general  character  of  the  culture 
of  a  modern  central  African  tribe  and  of  the  ancient  Egyptians 
being  so  profoundly  different,  diffused  culture  ingredients 
would  therefore  often  appear  among  the  Negroes  in  a  different 
form,  and  always  in  a  different  setting,  thus  tending  to  disguise 
their  historic  connection.  The  failure  of  certain  Egyptian  traits 
to  seep  through  Africa  is  also  readily  accounted  for.  A  back¬ 
ward  population  broken  up  into  small  communities  without 
much  stability  would  have  difficulty  fitting  such  an  art  as 
writing  into  their  scheme  of  life,  in  fact  would  find  it  useless. 
It  is  therefore  not  surprising  that  none  of  the  un-Mohammedan- 
ized  tribes  of  the  continent  write.  Similarly,  masonry  would 
be  needless,  perhaps  economically  unfeasible,  under  the  pre¬ 
vailing  social  conditions  of  central  Africa.  On  the  other  hand, 
so  obviously  utilitarian  an  art  as  iron  working  might  be  quickly 
taken  up,  once  it  had  been  brought  into  a  simple  technique.  In 
the  same  way,  an  adaptable  domestic  animal  or  plant  would  tend 
to  be  accepted  and  diffused,  while  a  concomitant  scheme  of 
political  organization  or  elaborated  religious  system  might  fail 
to  make  even  a  beginning  of  penetration.  It  is  in  this  way  that 
several  animals  of  Asiatic  origin  came  to  be  kept  through  con¬ 
siderable  parts  or  almost  the  whole  of  Africa;  the  horse,  camel, 
sheep,  fowl,  for  instance,  of  which  at  least  the  first  two  entered 
through  the  gateway  of  Egypt. 

This  does  not  mean  that  all  constituents  of  African  culture 
have  their  origin  in  Egypt;  still  less  that  the  colors  or  patterns 
of  African  cultures  can  be  derived  from  that  country.  However 
great  a  bulk  of  culture  may  be  absorbed  by  one  people  from 
another,  the  organization  which  is  given  this,  the  stamp  put 
upon  it,  is  necessarily  more  or  less  distinctive,  because  the  intro¬ 
duced  constituents  meet  others  already  established ;  and  espe¬ 
cially  because  the  recipient  culture,  even  if  low,  already  pos¬ 
sesses  a  form  of  its  own  into  which  it  unconsciously  attempts 
to  fit  the  new  content,  and  into  which,  unless  the  influx  is  sudden 
and  great,  it  usually  succeeds  in  fitting  the  imports  for  a  time. 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


499 


However,  any  specific  culture  trait  common  to  ancient  Egypt 
and  the  modern  Negroes  is  suspect  of  a  common  origin,  which 
ordinarily — though  not  universally — would  mean  an  Egyptian 
or  more  remote  origin.  Yet  the  resolution  of  such  a  suspicion 
is  not  always  easy.  Much  depends  on  the  extent  and  continuity 
of  the  geographical  distribution  of  the  trait,  and  on  the  actuality 
and  specificity  of  the  resemblance.  On  these  points  the  neces¬ 
sary  information  is  often  still  incomplete. 

The  general  relation  of  Africa  as  a  whole  to  Egypt  is  paral¬ 
leled  by  the  relation  of  western  Europe  of  four  thousand  years 
ago  to  the  Orient.  The  bronze,  cereals,  tamed  animals,  and 
many  other  culture  elements  of  Europe,  including  religious 
traits  like  the  ax  cult,  can  be  derived  from  the  Near  East.  But 
the  cities,  monarchies,  temples,  inscriptions,  astronomy,  and  art 
of  the  Orient  had  not  penetrated  to  farther  Europe.  Moreover, 
European  Bronze  Age  culture  was  not  merely  Oriental  civiliza¬ 
tion  with  half  or  three-fourths  its  content  omitted.  It  enjoyed 
an  organization  of  its  own,  followed  local  and  at  least  partly 
original  trends,  possessed  what  might  metaphorically  be  called 
an  organic  unity  as  great  as  that  of  any  Oriental  culture. 

268.  The  Influence  of  Other  Cultures 

Two  other  great  cultural  influences  have  long  affected  Africa. 
As  far  back  as  the  strictly  historic  period  extends,  its  Mediter¬ 
ranean  shore  has  been  generally  under  the  control  of  peoples 
belonging  to  Western  civilization — Carthaginians,  Romans,  or 
Arabs.  As  in  the  case  of  Egypt,  it  is  unthinkable  that  the  cul¬ 
tures  thus  planted  in  the  north  could  have  been  wholly  without 
effect  on  the  remoter  parts  of  the  continent.  In  fact,  for  the 
Arabs,  who  both  penetrated  the  farthest  and  are  the  most  recent 
comers,  influence  far  into  the  Sudan  is  manifest.  The  other 
exposure  was  toward  the  east,  and  here,  as  might  be  expected, 
Indian  influences,  chiefly  sea-borne  through  Arab  restlessness, 
have  been  potent.  Eastern  Africa  has  hump-backed  cattle, 
cotton,  the  pit-loom,  perhaps  the  fowl,  from  this  source.  Mada¬ 
gascar,  though  mainly  Negro  in  race,  is  Malaysian  in  speech  and 
prevailingly  Malaysian  in  culture  as  the  result  of  similar  mari¬ 
time  influences  from  the  east. 


500 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


In  these  lights,  much  of  African  culture  which  cannot  yet  be 
definitely  traced  to  an  extra- African  source  and  which  until 
recently  was  generally  assumed  to  be  of  purely  native  origin, 
may  prove  to  be  due  to  transmission  from  Asia  or  Europe.  The 
powerful  kingdoms  repeatedly  established  by  successful  leaders 
among  both  Sudan  and  Bantu  Negroes,  kingdoms  embracing 
diverse  tribes  and  sometimes  continuing  under  the  same  dynasty 
for  several  centuries,  may  be  due  to  Egyptian  or  Mohammedan 
example.  The  same  can  be  said  for  the  prevalence  of  slavery, 
which  is  both  more  widespread  and  more  important  economically 
in  Africa  than  in  any  other  large  region  of  similarly  retarded 
cultural  level.  Possibly  the  frequency  of  polygyny  belongs  in 
the  same  category.  It  is  true  that  Negro  economic  life  is  gen¬ 
erally  so  organized  that  wives  represent  investment  and  create 
wealth.  This  fact  might  be  the  result  of  the  influence  of  old 
economic  tendencies  upon  introduced  polygyny.  Or  the  form 
of  marriage  might  be  the  outcome  of  the  economic  scheme  of 
life  characteristic  of  Africa.  Yet  even  in  the  latter  case  an 
indirect  foreign  causation  can  be  suspected,  since  primitive  peo¬ 
ples,  at  any  rate  those  unquestionably  beyond  the  influences  of 
the  Eur- Asian  civilizations,  like  the  Australians  and  Americans, 
generally  do  not  place  heavy  social  stress  on  wealth.  The 
African  point  of  view  as  regards  economic  success,  with  the 
African  attitude  toward  marriage  as  a  consequence,  may  there¬ 
fore  be  partly  due  to  extra-African  stimulus  and  example. 

Such  stimulus  seems  more  easily  demonstrable  for  the  proverbs 
and  riddles  which  abound  in  Africa,  since  proverbs  were  com¬ 
pletely  and  riddles  almost  wholly  wanting  in  the  western  hemi¬ 
sphere,  and  are  therefore  not  the  native  and  spontaneous  out¬ 
flow  of  the  human  mind  which  our  own  familiarity  with  them 
might  tempt  us  to  take  for  granted  (§90). 

The  totemic  and  exogamic  institutions  of  Negro  Africa  (§  110) 
are  difficult  to  understand.  Their  distribution,  both  in  totality 
and  as  regards  their  several  forms,  is  patchy.  Clans  sometimes 
coexist  with  castes  or  occupational  classes,  sometimes  tend  to 
coincide  with  them.  Matrilineal  institutions  crop  up  irregularly 
among  prevailingly  patrilineal  ones.  In  several  separate  areas 
the  totemic  and  exogamic  groups  are  divorced,  even  following 
opposite  lines  of  descent.  The  large  blocks  of  peoples  sharing 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


501 


substantially  the  same  form  of  organization  in  Australia,  the 
regularity  of  regional  and  typological  graduation  of  forms  of 
organization  characteristic  of  North  America,  find  no  counter¬ 
part  in  Africa.  The  reason  would  seem  to  be  that  the  Australian 
and  American  cultures  developed  in  isolation  and  from  within, 
undisturbed ;  whereas  Africa  has  long  been  subjected  to  a  cul¬ 
tural  bombardment  which  constantly  mingled  new  traits  with 
old,  foreign  with  acclimated,  and  acclimated  with  indigenous. 
The  native  cultures  were  therefore  unable  to  follow  the  relatively 
smooth  sequence  of  development  by  area  or  stage  which  occurred 
in  Australia  and  America;  the  injected  ferments  caused  a  cul¬ 
tural  bubbling  in  which  elements  dissociated,  combined,  intensi¬ 
fied,  or  disappeared  according  to  intricate  circumstances.  It  is 
possible  that  other  phases  of  African  culture  owe  their  appear¬ 
ance  of  randomness  under  classification  to  the  same  set  of  causes.1 

269.  The  Bushmen 

Two  local  culture-areas,  as  they  would  be  called  on  American 
soil,  emerge  with  fair  distinctness:  The  Bushman  and  the  West 
African. 

The  Bushmen  of  the  far  south  about  the  Kalahari  desert  are 
distinctive  in  both  race  (§26)  and  speech.  Culturally  they  also 
stand  apart  as  an  exceptionally  primitive  people,  lacking  the 
agriculture,  cattle  and  fowls,  and  iron  working  of  the  Negroes. 
They  are  expert  hunters,  stalking  or  wearing  down  game  until 
it  is  within  range  of  their  poisoned  bone  or  stone  pointed  arrows, 
while  the  women  pry  up  roots  with  stone  weighted  digging 
sticks.  They  live  under  rock  shelters  or  on  the  leeward  side  of 
rude  windbreaks.  Subterranean  water  is  sucked  up  through 
reeds  and  kept  in  ostrich  egg  shells.  All  this  suggests  an  early 
Neolithic  or  even  largely  Pakeolithic  culture  type,  which  accords 
well  with  the  remote  and  environmentally  unfavorable  habitat. 
It  is  as  if  the  peripherally  situated  Bushmen  had  retained  up  to 

1  It  may  be  corroborative  of  this  interpretation  that  totemism  and 
exogamy  are  more  irregularly  distributed,  and  therefore  more  difficult  to 
reconstruct  as  to  their  history,  in  South  than  in  North  America.  The 
Tropical  Forest  area,  in  which  these  institutions  occur  in  South  America, 
has  long  been  exposed  to  the  influence  of  the  higher  civilization  of  the 
Andean  region,  much  as  Africa  has  been  exposed  to  Europe  and  Asia. 


502 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


the  present,  and  with  few  additions,  the  culture  that  prevailed 
in  Europe  ten  thousand  years  ago.  It  is  certainly  striking  that 
they  carve  and  paint  animal  figures  on  rock  faces  and  in  caves 
with  a  fidelity  and  unconstrained  naturalism  that  remind  of 
Magdalenian  art. 

The  Hottentots,  who  are  neighbors  of  the  Bushmen  and  ap¬ 
proach  them  in  physical  type,  appearing  to  be  a  mixture  of 
Bushman  and  other  blood,  are  culturally  less  retarded,  having 
cattle  and  iron.  In  central  Africa  another  dwarf  black  race,  the 
Pygmies  or  Negrillos,  probably  represent  a  people  of  once  primi¬ 
tive  status.  But  their  actual  cultural  condition  is  parasitic 
rather  than  natively  primitive,  thus  resembling  that  of  their 
relatives  the  East  Indian  Negritos.  They  live  among  Negro 
tribes,  acknowledge  their  kings,  trade  forest  and  hunting 
products  for  the  agricultural  yield  and  manufactures  of  the 
Negroes,  and  speak  dialects  of  the  latter’s  languages.  They  thus 
constitute  a  racially  accentuated  caste  or  economic  class  within 
Bantu  culture;  and  although  shy  and  backward,  cannot  be  said 
to  preserve  a  relatively  pure  early  culture  as  do  the  Bushmen. 

270.  The  West  African  Culture- area  and  Its  Meaning 

Over  the  larger  northern  portion  of  the  Congo  drainage  and 
along  the  Guinea  coast  from  the  Niger  mouth  to  the  Senegal, 
there  prevails  a  well  defined  West  African  culture.  This  is 
marked  by  a  number  of  traits  which  within  Africa  are  approxi¬ 
mately  confined  to  it.  These  traits  include  the  cultivation  of 
the  banana  but  general  absence  of  millet  and  cattle;  gabled 
houses  of  thatch,  other  Africans  building  domed  or  conical 
structures  or  mud  dwellings;  clothing  of  palm  fiber  or  bark; 
straight  self-bows  with  pointed  ends  and  encircling  ridges  for 
the  attachment  of  the  looped  cord  of  rattan;  shields  of  wood  or 
cane,  in  place  of  which  other  Africans  employ  leather  bucklers, 
shields  of  hide,  or  parrying  sticks;  face  masks  for  religious 
purposes;  carvings  of  the  human  form;  slit  wooden  drums; 
xylophones;  and  a  number  of  other  traits. 

Two  interpretations  can  be  suggested  for  this  consistent  and 
geographically  limited  association  of  traits.  One  makes  use  of 
the  recurrence  of  many  of  the  elements  in  the  Indo-Oceanic  and 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


503 


especially  the  Melanesian  area.  As  the  latter  is  also  Negroid 
territory,  an  ancient  connection  is  conceivable.  This  would 
obviously  have  to  be  old  enough  to  precede  the  Egyptian,  west 
Asiatic,  and  Indian-East  African  culture  developments.  These 
later  growths  ‘would  be  interpreted  as  having  spread  less  far, 
although  obliterating  the  antecedent  Negroid  culture  so  far  as 
they  did  diffuse.  This  explanation  fits  well  with  the  principle 
that,  other  things  equal,  superposed  culture  strata  appear  cen¬ 
trally,  underlying  ones  survive  marginally.  Proof,  however, 
must  depend  on  whether  the  parallel  traits  are  really  specifically 
similar,  whether  they  constitute  a  reasonably  large  proportion 
of  the  culture  of  the  two  areas,  and  whether  they  are  lacking 
in  the  intervening  region.  This  evidence  is  naturally  difficult 
to  assemble. 

The  other  interpretation  is  less  incisive.  It  looks  upon  the 
resemblances  as  at  least  partly  conditioned  by  environment ;  and 
would  tend  to  explain  the  remainder  as  due  to  a  diffusion,  early 
indeed,  but  gradual  and  applying  to  single  elements  or  small 
clusters  of  traits  rather  than  to  an  association  of  traits  large 
enough  to  form  a  culture  and  moving  as  a  single  block.  In  this 
connection  it  is  significant  that  the  Oceanic  area  is  one  of 
tropical  forest,  and  the  West  African  area  the  only  large  for¬ 
ested  tract  in  its  continent.  Hence  the  absence  of  cattle  and 
open-country  grains,  the  use  made  of  the  banana.  Hence  too 
the  possibility  of  bark  cloth;  and  the  extremely  serviceable 
rattan  cord,  which  in  turn  may  have  demanded  a  certain  type 
of  bow;  whereas  other  types,  like  the  sinew-backed  bow,  would 
be  unsatisfactory  in  the  humid  climate.  And  the  carving  of 
wood,  while  not  due  to  the  forest,  was  at  least  made  possible  by 
it.  In  short,  diffusion  may  have  been  the  motive  power  in¬ 
volved,  but  like  environmental  conditions  in  the  two  areas  caught 
and  helped  to  preserve  such  elements  as  were  diffused — stabilized 
the  culture  once  it  was  adapted  to  the  soil  and  rendered  it  more 
resistive  to  importations  of  traits  worked  out  in  different  cli¬ 
mates.  This  interpretation  at  any  rate  makes  smaller  assump¬ 
tions  than  its  competitor,  and  serves  as  an  illustration  of  the 
need  of  environmental  conditions  being  kept  in  mind  in  the 
explanation  of  culture,  even  though  the  essential  explanation 
be  in  social  or  cultural  terms. 


504 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


271.  Civilization,  Race,  and  the  Future 

Culture  may  be  independent  of  race ;  possibly  is  wholly  so. 
But  culture  must  be  carried  by  races  of  some  sort ;  and  it  may 
be  of  interest  to  consider  whether  the  sweep  of  culture  history 
reveals  certain  races  as  the  most  favorable  carriers  or  as  in¬ 
herently  constituted  to  be  producers  and  dispensers  of  civiliza¬ 
tion  ( §  44-46 ) . 

On  the  whole,  the  greatest  share  of  culture  production  has 
fallen  to  Caucasians.  The  art  of  Upper  Palaeolithic  Europe, 
the  laying  of  the  foundations  of  modern  civilization  along  the 
Nile  and  Euphrates  six  or  seven  thousand  years  ago,  the  more 
special  ancient  efflorescences  like  that  of  Crete,  not  to  mention 
most  of  the  advances  of  the  last  twenty-five  hundred  years,  all 
fall  to  the  account  of  the  white  race. 

The  part  of  the  Mongoloids  must  not  be  underestimated. 
Even  if  the  foundation  of  Chinese  civilization  prove  to  be 
largely  western,  its  main  structure  is  native,  and  the  alien 
elements  that  flowed  in  during  the  last  three  thousand  years 
have  been  thoroughly  adapted  to  this  structure.  The  fact  that 
derivative  civilizations  like  the  Japanese  have  succeeded  in 
reaching  a  high  degree  of  organization  and  refinement  argues 
still  further  for  the  vigor  of  Chinese  culture.  Then,  the  East 
Indians,  another  Mongoloid  branch,  have  shown  a  fair  power 
of  assimilation.  In  the  past  two  thousand  years  they  may  be 
said  to  have  accepted  and  digested  at  least  as  much  of  Hindu 
and  Mohammedan  civilization  as  the  North  Europeans  took  over 
from  Mediterranean  sources  between  1500  B.C.  and  500  A.D. 
Finally,  the  achievements  of  the  American  Mongoloids  in 
Mexico  and  Peru  must  be  given  heavy  weight  because  they 
appear  to  have  been  made  in  utter  isolation,  without  the  stimulus 
of  contact  or  import,  and  on  the  basis  of  nothing  more  than  a 
late  Palaeolithic  or  earliest  Neolithic  culture. 

The  share  of  the  Negroids  in  the  higher  advances  has  been 
small.  Africa,  to  be  sure,  lies  off  to  one  side  from  the  great 
Eur-Asian  axis,  and  like  southern  India  and  Arabia  has  suf¬ 
fered  from  constituting  almost  a  blind  alley.  Yet  central  Africa 
is  no  farther  from  the  Mediterranean  than  is  northern  Europe. 
East  Africa  lies  open  to  Egypt  which  six  and  five  and  four  thou- 


HISTORY  AND  ETHNOLOGY 


505 


sand  years  ago  represented  the  apex  of  civilization.  Yet  Negro 
Africa  to-day  possesses  scarcely  more  culture  elements  of 
Egypto-Babylonian  origin  than  remote  Scandinavia  had  ab¬ 
sorbed  by'  500  B.C.,  and  far  fewer  than  Scandinavia  had  in 
1000  A.D.  It  is  hard  to  believe  that  this  difference  is  due  wholly 
to  desert  and  jungle  and  tropical  heat. 

There  is  a  parallel  in  the  Oceanic  Negroes.  The  Australians 
may  be  disregarded  in  this  connection,  both  on  account  of  the 
isolation  of  their  continent  and  the  doubt  whether  they  are  to 
be  reckoned  as  a  branch  of  the  Negroid  stem.  But  the  Papuans 
and  Melanesians  are  undisputedly  Negroid  and  far  less  touched 
by  influences  of  higher  culture  than  the  adjacent  East  Indians. 
It  may  be  only  geographic  accident  that  writing  and  iron  and 
kingship  and  Hindu  and  Arab  religion  traversed  the  Oceanian 
islands  as  far  as  the  brown  Mongoloids  inhabited  them,  but 
stopped  dead  at  the  threshold  of  the  blacks.  Even  the  brown 
Polynesians,  much  more  remote  in  the  central  Pacific  than  the 
Melanesians,  possess  more  elements  that  are  presumably  trace¬ 
able  to  Asia — such  as  their  cosmogony,  genealogies,  kingship. 

It  is  of  course  not  fair  to  argue  from  cultural  accomplishment 
to  racial  faculty  unless  all  times  and  parts  of  the  world  are 
considered  equally,  and  not  safe  to  interpret  the  evidence  too 
rigorously  then.  But  the  consistent  failure  of  the  Negro  race 
to  accept  the  whole  or  even  the  main  substance  of  the  fairly 
near-by  Mediterranean  civilization,  or  to  work  out  any  notable 
sub-centers  of  cultural  productivity,  would  appear  to  be  one 
of  the  strongest  of  the  arguments  that  can  be  advanced  for  an 
inferiority  of  cultural  potentiality  on  their  part. 

Yet  the  weakness  of  correlation  of  race  faculty  and  civiliza¬ 
tion,  except  in  the  most  general  way,  can  be  driven  home  to 
North  Europeans  and  North  Americans  as  soon  as  the  relative 
parts  played  in  culture  history  by  the  several  Caucasian  divi-* 
sions  are  examined.  On  the  ground  of  long  continued  lead  in 
productivity,  of  having  reared  the  largest  portion  of  the  struc¬ 
ture  of  existing  civilization,  the  Mediterranean  branch  of  the 
Caucasian  race  would  have  to  be  awarded  the  palm  over  all 
others.  To  it  belonged  the  Egyptians;  the  Cretans  and  other 
-Egeans ;  the  Semitic  strain  in  the  Babylonians ;  the  Phoenicians 
and  Hebrews;  and  a  large  element  in  the  populations  of  classic 


506 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


Greece  and  Italy,  as  well  as  the  originators  of  Mohammedanism. 
With  the  Hindus  added  as  probably  nearly  related,  the  dark 
whites  have  a  clear  lead. 

The  next  largest  share  civilization  would  owe  to  the  Alpine- 
Armenoid  broad-headed  Caucasian  branch.  This  may  have  in¬ 
cluded  the  Sumerians,  if  they  were  not  Mediterranean;  com¬ 
prised  the  Hittites;  and  contributed  important  strains  to  the 
other  peoples  of  Western  Asia  and  Greece  and  Italy. 

By  comparison,  the  Nordic  branch  looms  insignificant.  Up 
to  a  thousand  years  ago  the  Nordic  peoples  had  indeed  contri¬ 
buted  ferment  and  unsettling,  but  scarcely  a  single  new  culture 
element,  certainly  not  a  new  element  of  importance  and  per¬ 
manence.  For  centuries  after  that,  the  center  of  European 
civilization  remained  in  Mediterranean  Italy  or  Alpine  France. 
It  is  only  after  1500  A.D.  that  any  claim  for  a  shift  of  this 
center  to  the  Nordic  populations  could  be  alleged.  In  fact,  most 
of  the  national  and  cultural  supremacy  of  the  Nordic  peoples, 
so  far  as  it  is  real,  falls  within  the  last  two  hundred  years. 
Against  this,  the  Mediterraneans  and  Alpines  have  a  record  of 
leading  in  civilizational  creativeness  for  at  least  six  thousand 
years. 

It  is  clear  therefore  that  any  fears  of  the  arrest  and  decay 
of  human  progress  if  a  particular  race  should  lose  in  fertility 
or  become  absorbed  in  others,  are  unfounded.  Such  alarms  may 
be  attributed  to  egocentric  imagination.  They  resemble  the 
regrets  of  an  individual  at  the  loss  which  the  world  will  suffer 
when  he  dies;  what  he  really  fears  is  his  own  death.  When  we 
loosen  the  hold  of  such  narrow  and  essentially  personal  emotions, 
and  allow  our  minds  to  range  over  the  whole  of  the  labors  and 
gradual  achievements  of  humanity,  irrespective  of  millennium 
or  continent,  the  result  is  an  imperturbed  equanimity  as  to  the 
slight  and  temporary  predominance  of  this  or  that  racial  strain 
and  as  to  the  stability  or  future  of  culture.  To  contribute  to 
this  larger  tolerance  and  balance  of  mind  is  one  of  the  functions 
of  anthropology. 


INDEX 


Abbeville,  398 
Abyssinian,  96,  135,  451 
Academies,  132 
Acceleration,  395 
Achaemenian,  452 
Achenschwankung,  406 
Acheulean,  153,  395-410 
Adolescence  Rite,  see  Girls’  Rite 
Adriatic,  53,  424 

^Egean,  418,  423,  425,  432,  456,  457, 
459,  505;  sea,  457 
^Ethiopian,  see  Ethiopian 
Afghan,  Afghanistan,  211,  284,  484 
Agamemnon,  457 

Agglutinating  languages,  100,  102 
Agra,  251 

Agriculture,  184,  211,  218,  238,  294, 
329,  354,  370,  379,  381,  383,  389, 
414,  442,  446,  449,  492,  501 
Ainu,  35,  40,  41,  42,  51,  53,  73,  470, 
475 

Akkad,  434,  451,  458 
Alabama,  78 

Alaska,  213,  218,  295,  303,  345,  347, 
350,  351,  421 
Alarcon,  318 
Albanian,  95,  105 
Alcalar,  420 
Aleph,  270,  271 
Aleutian  Islands,  350 
Alexander,  255,  451 
Alexandria,  255 
Algiers,  400 

Algonkin,  100,  135,  352,  389 
Alignments,  416 
Allees  couvertes,  430 
Alloy,  426 
Alpha,  270 

Alphabet,  223,  224,  241,  264,  269- 
292,  326,  329,  330,  333,  426,  438, 
442,  448,  454,  469,  482,  484 
Alpine  (race),  41,  42,  43,  55,  63,  77, 
472,  476,  506 
Alps,  149,  150,  400,  406 
Altaic,  95,  469,  474 
Altamira,  408 

Altars,  187,  188,  294,  310,  368 
Amazon,  338,  340,  382 
Amber,  166 


Amenhotep  IV,  458 
American  Indians,  38,  39,  41,  44,  47, 
64,  67,  73,  145,  197,  199,  252,  324, 
343,  348,  421 
Amorites,  451,  472 
Analytical  languages,  220 
Anam,  Anamese,  96,  465,  485,  487 
Anau,  449,  450,  473 
Ancestor  worship,  466,  471 
Ancylus  fluviatilis,  lake,  period,  428 
Andaman  Islands,  45 
Andes,  Andean  area,  228,  338,  342, 
354,  381,  382,  384,  501 
Anglo-Saxon,  56,  83,  104,  113,  117, 
118,  221,  346,  347 
Animal  speech,  106 
Animism,  218 

Anthropoid,  13,  21,  32,  63,  109,  152 
Anthropometry,  30 
Anthropomorphize,  106,  219 
Antilles,  Antillean  area,  339,  356, 
361,  369,  382,  385 
Anvils,  165 
Apache,  181,  187,  188 
Aphrodite,  256 
Apostles,  195 

Arab,  Arabs,  Arabia,  Arabic,  53,  96, 
104,  111,  113,  136,  205,  208,  210, 
211,  213,  230,  258,  269,  282,  285, 

286,  287,  290,  449,  451-456,  467, 
472,  473,  484,  485,  499,  504,  505 

Aram,  Aramaean,  Aramaic,  270,  285, 

287,  422,  451,  454,  455 
Arapaho,  135,  294 
Araucanian,  100 
Arawak,  100,  352 

Arch,  209,  241-252,  326,  418,  448; 
corbelled,  245,  420;  true,  246,  438, 
485 

Archimedes,  425 

Architecture,  229,  241,  371,  418,  424, 
426,  433,  484,  488 
Arctic,  Arctic  area,  236,  295,  336, 
388,  389,  391 
Argentina,  218,  338,  370 
Arizona,  187,  294,  296,  303,  304,  310, 
348 

Armenia,  Armenian,  43,  53,  95,  207, 
260,  262,  452 


507 


508 


INDEX 


Armenoid,  505 
Armor,  129,  391 
Arsenic,  374 
Art,  390,  502 
Art,  Palaeolithic,  171 
Artifacts;  138,  142,  437 
Arunta,  236 

Aryan,  95,  111,  472,  479,  480,  484, 
488 

Ascetics,  479,  482,  485 
Asia  Minor,  43,  95,  202,  203,  207, 
217,  422,  432,  450-453,-455,  474 
Ass,  441,  446 
Assam,  486 
Assiniboine,  294 

Assyria,  Assyrian,  96,  104,  202,  247, 
423,  447,  451,  453-455,  458;  As- 
syriod,  53 
Astrology,  254,  379 
Astronomy,  208,  253,  256,  324,  333, 
341,  374-378,  418,  443,  482,  484, 
499 

Asturian,  429 

Athabascan,  135,  352,  389 

Atheism,  455,  483 

Athens,  Athenian,  84,  124,  438 

Atlatl,  167,  349 

Atom,  479 

Atreus,  246 

Aurignac,  32 

Aurignacian,  27,  29,  153-179,  343, 
395,  396,  400,  402,  404-406,  412, 
496 

Australia,  Australian,  Australoid, 
32,  39  40,  41,  42,  44,  46,  51-55,  64, 
95,  98,  145,  146,  182,  222,  232-236, 
253,  329,  364,  469,  476,  486,  487, 
492-495,  500,  501,  505;  Austra- 
lioid,  55 

Austria,  69,  157,  173,  412,  424,  431 
Austro-Hungary,  203 
Authorized  Version,  422 
Avars,  475 

Avestan,  220,  452,  479 
Awl,  165,  349,  396,  406,  412,  429 
Ax,  143,  144,  145,  168,  413,  417, 
427-430,  432,  470,  495;  cult,  499 
Aymara,  100,  105 

Azilian,  166,  177,  395,  396,  406-410, 
412,  413,  428,  496 
Aztec,  100,  134,  166,  225,  260,  266, 
268,  310,  338,  353,  359,  369,  371, 
374,  376-378,  380.  See  also  Nahua 

Baal  Lebanon  Bowl,  269 
Babylon,  Babylonia,  Babylonians,  96, 
113,  142,  203,  204,  207,  209,  211, 
217,  232,  247,  251,  253-255,  257, 


258,  266,  268,  305,  333,  353,  417, 
418,  422,  423,  433-435,  440-443, 
448,  449,  451-453,  455,  458,  479, 
505 

Bahamas,  385 
Baikal,  462 
Balearics,  432 

Balkan,  Balkans,  43,  53,  401,  424, 
431,  432,  452 

Baltic  sea,  coasts,  languages,  43,  95, 
418,  427,  428,  430,  432,  434,  445 
Bamboo,  469,  489,  490 
Banana,  502,  503 
Bantu,  32,  39,  96,  100,  119,  500 
Baptist,  3 

Bark  cloth,  486,  489,  491,  502,  503 
Barley,  344,  414,  429,  440,  446,  450, 
460,  463 
Barong,  419 

Baskets,  349,  360,  495;  coiled,  222, 
384;  twilled,  221 
Basque,  104,  105,  121,  194,  197 
Bast,  349,  360,  362 
Batik,  223,  289 
Bavaria,  157 
Beans,  353,  414 
Beer,  441 
Behaviorism,  327 

Behring  Sea,  218;  Strait,  213,  350, 
390,  475 

Belgium,  Belgian,  23,  24,  111,  147, 
398,  407,  432 
Beluchistan,  477 

Bengal,  289;  Bengali,  221,  346,  347 

Benin,  496 

Berber,  53 

Beta,  270 

Beth,  270 

Bible,  115,  271,  417,  423,  479 

Binet-Simon,  75 

Birch  bark,  360 

Bisaya,  290 

Bison,  152 

Blackfeet,  135,  294 

Black  Sea,  452,  455,  479 

Blond,  111 

Blood  relationship,  232 
Blowgun,  382,  489 
Blumenbach,  49 
Boar,  see  swine 
Boas,  55 

Bohemia,  29,  432 
Bolas,  384 

Bolivia,  105,  228,  380,  383 
Bombay,  302 

Bone  implements,  164,  176,  396,  411 
Bonn,  27 
Books,  379 


INDEX 


509 


Boomerang,  494,  495 
Borneo,  209,  253,  290 
Borrowing,  see  diffusion;  linguistic, 
91 

Bos  hrachyceros,  415;  primigenius, 
152,  415 
Bosnia,  424 

Bow,  143,  167,  182,  218,  348,  349, 
408,  411,  426,  429,  446,  470,  489, 
491,  492,  494,  502,  503;  composite, 
218.  See  also  Sinew-backed 
Bowditch,  230 
Brachycephalic,  37,  63 
Brahman,  Brahmanism,  483,  488 
Brahmi,  287 
Brahui,  135,  477 
Brass,  417,  422 

Brazil,  105,  194,  197,  222,  224,  226, 
227,  339,  365,  383 
Bread,  463 

Bregma,  31,  32;  angle,  31;  position 
index,  31 

Brick,  418,  441,  447,  448,  450 
Brihaspati,  258 

Britain,  British,  Briton,  43,  82,  305, 
424,  454 

British  Columbia,  202,  295,  296,  305 
Brittany,  Breton,  104,  465 
Broken  Hill  Bone  Cave,  25 
Bronze,  227,  228,  373,  374,  417,  419, 
422,  425,  430,  440,  445,  447,  450, 
458,  489,  496,  499 

Bronze  Age,  142,  146,  228,  246,  394, 
408,  414-421,  426,  430,  431,  435, 
436,  446,  450,  456,  460,  462,  470, 
473,  478,  479,  496,  499 
Brooks  island,  321 
Brunet,  77 

Briinn,  28,  32,  34,  155,  395,  402,  403, 
404 

Briix,  29,  32,  403 

Buddhism,  Buddhist,  123,  204,  214, 
289,  291,  333,  334,  455,  463,  467, 
470,  475,  480,  483,  486,  488,  491; 
Buddha,  480 
Buckwheat,  468 

Buffalo,  294,  334,  386,  463,  485,  489, 
490 

Buhl,  406 
Bulgars,  475 
Burial,  141,  171 
Burma,  485 

Bushmen,  39,  45,  51,  52,  54,  55,  96, 
173,  469,  501,  502 
Buttress,  247 
Byzantine,  210,  250,  448 

Cabrillo,  318 


Caddoan,  369 
Caesar,  81,  105,  276,  425 
Cahuilla,  236 
Calchaqui,  370,  371.  372 
Calcutta,  68 

Calendar,  285,  374-378,  388,  418, 
441,  443,  446 

California,  125,  211,  222,  224,  236, 
251,  294,  296,  327,  333,  342,  350, 
365,  373,  388,  389,  391;  Central, 
296-317;  Northwestern,  296-317; 
Southern,  296-317 

California-Great  Basin  area,  295, 
336 

Calpulli,  359 

Calvarial  height  index,  31 
Calvarium,  30 
Cambodia,  485 
Camel,  450,  456,  498 
Camp  circle,  386 
Campignian,  429 

Canaan,  Canaanites,  441,  451,  455, 
479 

Canada,  236 
Cancer,  67,  70 

Cannibal,  141,  194,  369,  490,  491 
Cape  Horn,  329,  351,  364 
Capital  letters,  282 
Carib,  100 
Carnivores,  11,  295 
Caspian  Sea,  95,  400-409,  451,  452, 
479 

Cassava,  382 

Caste,  479,  480,  497,  500,  502 
Cat,  414 

Catalina  Island,  310,  311 
Cathedral,  250,  251 
Catholic,  Roman,  257 
Cattle,  344,  348,  414,  416,  426,  429, 

430,  441,  446,  449,  450,  463,  473, 

479,  499,  501,  502,  503 

Carthage,  Carthaginians,  96,  270, 
454,  499 

Castillo  cave,  157 

Caucasian  race,  3,  30,  34,  35,  36,  38, 
39,  41,  42,  44,  46,  49,  52,  53,  55, 
58,  62,  67,  79,  120,  124,  155,  230, 
334,  339,  343,  351,  382,  387,  395, 

457,  470,  475,  476,  477,  486,  496, 

504,  505,  506;  languages,  105 
Caucasus,  43,  421,  453,  462 
Cave  period,  151 
Cebidae,  13 
Celebes,  46,  486 
Census,  466 

Cephalic  index,  30,  37,  38,  56 
Cetceans,  11 


510 


INDEX 


Ceylon,  67,  476,  483,  486;  aee  also 
Singhalese 

Chaco,  339,  383,  384 
Cnalcis,  274 
Chaldean,  204,  451 
Chalybes.  422 
Chancelade,  27,  32 
Chapelle-aux-Saints,  24 
Charade,  264 
Charente,  24 

Chariot,  418,  448,  455,  467,  468,  479 
Charles  V,  203 
Charleston,  70 

Chellean,  153,  179,  395,  398,  399, 
405,  406,  433,  444,  496;  pick,  150, 
158,  160,  397-398 
Chelles,  153 
Cheops,  447 

Cherokee,  225,  253,  386 
Chess,  482,  485 
Cheyenne,  294 

Chibcha,  100,  228,  338,  372,  378,  381. 

See  also  Colombia 
Chihli,  464 

Children’s  speech,  118 
Chile,  384 
Chilkat  blanket,  361 
Chimpanzee,  13,  22,  23,  27,  32 
China,  Chinese,  5,  39,  65,  68,  69, 
95,  96,  103,  111,  113,  119,  203, 
204,  210,  221,  223,  224,  226,  228, 
259,  260,  266,  268,  291,  292,  329, 
343,  371,  423-425,  438,  447,  458, 
459,  460-474,  476,  483,  485-489, 
504.  See  also  Sinitic 
Chinook,  120 
Chipped  stone,  142,  412 
Chou,  423,  461,  463,  464,  466,  470 
Christian,  195,  256-258,  305,  447, 
454;  Christianity,  198,  209,  237, 
257-259,  292,  302,  333,  334,  452, 
455  475  483 

Chronology,  319,  323,  327,  433,  434, 
440,  457 
Cross,  333 
Ch’u,  465 

Chukchi,  210,  213,  475 
Chungichnish  Cult,  310-315 
Cicero,  425 
Cities,  441 

City-states,  359,  434,  443,  449 
Clan,  232,  355,  360,  385,  388,  491, 
500 

Climate,  183,  192,  212,  405,  448,  472 
Cloaca  Maxima,  248 
Coca,  212,  354,  381 
Codes,  132,  137 


Coinage,  coins,  424-426,  448,  455, 
484 

Coliseum,  248 

Colombia,  260,  338,  354,  372,  374, 
378,  381,  382.  See  also  Chibcha 
Color  line,  481 

Colorado  river,  296,  298-318,  391 
Columbus,  210,  290 
Column,  243,  344 
Comanche,  294 
Combe-Capelle,  27,  29,  32 
Compass,  mariner’s,  467 
Complex,  199,  211,  237,  238,  292, 
366,  462 

Confederacy,  359,  36d 
Confucianism,  470,  471,  483,  487; 

Confucius,  464 
Congo,  502 
Conservation,  438 

Conservatism,  135,  276,  283,  291, 
468 

Constantine,  258 
Constantinople,  250 
Constellations,  204 
Constitution,  133 
Context,  cultural,  217 
Continuant  sounds,  92 
Conventionalization,  266,  267 
Convergence,  see  Parallelism;  con¬ 
vergent  languages,  124 
Copernican,  8,  59,  208 
Copper,  332,  373,  416,  417,  419,  421, 
432,  441,  445,  447,  449,  450,  456, 
458,  478,  479 
Copper  river,  421 
Coptic,  104 

Cordage,  349,  362,  495 

Core,  160,  164,  176,  395,  398 

Corr^ze,  24 

Corsican,  5 

Cortex,  110,  137 

Cortez,  203,  359 

Cotton,  361,  362,  379,  426,  463,  467, 
468,  479,  485,  488,  499 
Counter  weight,  246 
Coup  counting,  387 
Coup-de-poing,  157,  158,  397,  398 
Court,  Supreme,  132,  133 
Couvade,  194 
Coyote,  348 

Cranial  capacity,  see  Skull  capacity 
Cranial  index,  37 

Crete,  Cretan,  223,  268,  269,  305, 
418,  419,  423,  433,  438,  441,  442, 
451,  456,  457,  458,  504,  505 
Crisis  rites,  363,  364,  365,  494 


INDEX 


511 


Cro-Magnon,  15,  27-30,  32,  34,  48, 
155,  173,  344,  395,  396,  403,  404, 
405 

Crow,  294 
Crusaders,  203 
Cuba,  385 

Culture  area,  center,  295,  336,  432, 
466,  501 

Cuneiform,  266,  268,  269,  422,  449, 
451,  454,  463,  464 
Cuzco,  380 
Cybele,  455 

Cycle,  226,  255,  376,  377 
Cyclopean  walls,  458 
Czecho-Slovakia,  28,  157,  403,  412 

Dagger,  417,  418,  429,  432 
Dakota,  116 
Damascus,  454 

Danube,  402,  432;  Danubian,  462 

Dark  Ages,  249 

Darwin,  8,  11 

Daun,  406 

David,  456 

Dawson,  22 

Day  count,  376 

Deccan,  476 

Dechelette,  420,  432 

Decimal,  231 

Deerskin  dance,  312,  313 

Degrees  of  circle,  207 

Delaware,  253 

Demotic,  266 

Deniker,  52 

Denmark,  Danish,  67,  412,  427,  428, 
435 

Dentalium,  388 

Descent,  see  matrilinear,  patrilinear, 
unilateral 
Devonian,  140 
Diegueno,  310,  311 
Diffusion,  194-215,  218,  220,  224, 
233,  238,  239,  269,  301,  326-328, 
372,  418,  431,  437,  440,  462,  493, 
494,  503;  in  language,  119 
Di-Gamma,  278 
Digging  sticks,  501 
Diomede  islands,  350 
Diphtheria,  69 
Dipylon  (pottery),  458 
Distribution  (geographic),  197,  327, 
328,  335,  357,  49^,  500 
Divination,  209,  469 
Djengis  Khan,  474 
Dniepr,  462 

Dog,  106,  109,  151,  348,  349,  387, 
391,  412,  428,  429,  446,  470,  491 


Dolichocephalic,  21,  37,  63 
Dolmen,  416,  430,  433,  435,  496 
Domesticated  Animals,  414,  426,  434, 
444,  446,  451,  492,  498 
Dordogne,  24,  27 
Double-headed  eagle,  202,  223 
Drachma,  207 
Drake,  318 
Drama,  484 

Dravidian,  Dravida,  52,  53,  55,  96, 
100,  105,  119,  135,  477,  478,  481 
Dreams,  188 
Drift  (period),  151 
Dubois,  21 
Duck,  414 
Duodecimal,  207 
Diisseldorf,  24 
Dutch,  105,  111,  489 
Dwarf  Black,  see  Negrito 
Dynastic,  dynasties,  434,  446,  457, 
500 

East  Indies,  East  Indians,  44,  46,  53, 
67,  98,  213,  221,  232,  253,  260, 
289,  343,  423,  471,  485,  486,  487, 
488,  490,  504,  506 
Easter  Island,  98 
Eclipses,  254 
Ecuador,  228,  338 

Egypt,  Egyptian,  30,  55,  96,  104, 
113,  141,  142,  173,  202-204,  211, 
223,  232,  244,  253,  255,  258,  259, 
262,  265-267,  269,  291,  305,  330, 
333,  353,  371,  402,  414,  416-419, 
423,  425,  431,  433-435,  438,  440- 
449,  453-459,  468,  479,  496-500, 
503-505. 

Eighteen  Provinces,  461 
Elam,  Elamite,  441,  449,  450 
Elementary  Ideas,  195 
Elephant,  152,  174,  350 
Ellis  Landing  mound,  321,  323 
Empire,  333,  360,  380,  483 
Encyclopaedia,  468 
Endocrine,  66 
Endogamy,  481 
Eneolithic,  417,  450 
England,  English,  Englishmen,  67, 
76,  78,  %  134,  213,  400,  401,  407, 
408,  417 

Environment,  326,  502 
Eoanthropus,  23 
Eocene,  18 

Eolithic,  146-148,  444,  446 
Ephthalites,  475 
Epicanthic  fold,  44 
Epi-Palaeolithic,  409 


512 


INDEX 


Eriocomi,  54 

Eskimo,  32,  45,  51,  53,  100,  121,  146, 
181,  212,  213,  241,  336,  345,  346, 
366,  367,  370,  375,  390,  391,  475 
Estrangelo,  291 
Estufa,  371 
Ether,  479 

Ethiopian,  49,  52,  472 
Ethnography,  6 
Ethnographic  province,  295 
Ethnology,  6 

Etruscans,  209,  211,  217,  248,  249, 
251,  278,  423,  438,  451 
Eubcea,  274 
Eugenics,  7 

Euphrates,  203,  441,  447,  448,  451- 
453,  504 
Euplocomi,  54 

Eurasian,  Eur-Asiatic,  53,  253,  327, 
431,  500,  504 
Euthycomi,  54 
Evolution,  7 

Evolutionistic  anthropology,  9 
Examinations,  literary,  468,  470, 

487 

Exogamy,  232-238,  355-360,  490,  492, 
493,  500,  501 
Eye  Color,  40,  106 

Faience,  447 

Family,  232;  linguistic,  88,  194, 
345;  names,  487 
Ear  East,  423,  424,  474 
Fasting,  364 
Fashions,  126,  129,  215 
Fertile  Crescent,  440,  453 
Fetish  bundle,  368 
Feudal,  Feudalism,  125,  425,  448, 
469,  471;  Kingdom  of  Egypt,  446 
Fibula,  see  safety-pin 
Fiji,  45 
Filipinos,  67 

Finland,  Finns,  95,  427,  474,  476 
Finno-Ugric,  95,  110,  474,  475,  476 
First  Salmon  Rite,  304-316 
Firearms,  419,  467,  474,  484,  489 
Fire,  140,  169,  176,  395,  426 
Fire-drill,  218,  349 
Fire-worship,  302,  452 
Fish,  183 

Flake,  160,  164,  176,  395,  398 
Flax,  414,  446 
Flemish,  Fleming,  105,  111 
Flood  legends,  200 
Florida,  385 

Focus  (of  culture),  189,  356,  377, 
426,  431,  437,  440,  467,  472,  473, 
476 


Folk-lore,  198-202 
Folkways,  128 
Fonts,  282 
Fone-de-Gaume,  408 
Foramen  magnum,  26 
Fossil,  137 

Fowl,  414,  486,  489-491,  498,  499, 
501 

France,  see  French 
Franciscan,  333 
Frank,  104 

French,  France,  43,  117,  121,  136, 
220,  250,  253,  276,  395,  398,  400, 
402,  405,  407,  408,  418,  424,  426, 
429,  432,  506 
Fricative  sounds,  92 
Frija,  256 
Frontal  angle,  33 
Fuegian,  469 
Fuyu,  470 

Gables,  502 

Gabrielino,  188,  190,  310,  311,  320 

Gafsa,  400 

Galley  Hill,  29,  32 

Galton,  83 

Gamma,  270,  275 

Ganges  river,  479,  480 

Ganggraeber,  430 

Gaul,  105,  305,  425,  465 

Gender,  sex,  119 

Genealogy,  491,  505 

Generation,  57 

Genetic  classification,  88,  103 
Genius,  71,  83,  273 
Gens,  232 

German,  Germany,  43,  104,  117,  118, 
135,  398,  421,  424,  427,  432,  464, 
472 

Germanic,  95,  124,  221,  419,  425, 
460,  473 

Ghost-dance,  334 
Gibbon,  13 

Gibraltar,  24,  32,  398,  404 
Gideon,  456 
Gimel,  270 

Girls’  Rite,  300-316,  365 
Glabella,  31,  33 

Glaciation,  Glacial  period,  18,  23, 
149,  350,  444 

fi-laca  4-47 

Goat,’ 44,  415,  441,  451,  463,  473 
Gold,  373,  374,  416,  421,  479 
Gorilla,  13,  21,  22,  26,  27,  32,  64 
Goths,  Gothic,  104,  220,  251,  284; 

architecture,  250 
Grseco-Bactrian,  484 
Grain,  379,  446,  462,  463,  473,  503 


INDEX 


513 


Grammar,  482 
Great  Basin,  236,  296,  336 
Greece,  Greek,  93,  95,  103,  111,  113, 
126,  129,  204,  210,  211,  220,  226, 
244,  253,  265,  269,  270-273,  346, 
359,  395,  419,  421,  424,  431,  432, 

447,  454,  455,  456,  457,  459,  472, 
480,  483,  484,  506 

Greenland,  150 
Gregorian  calendar,  377 
Grenelle,  30 

Grimaldi,  27-29,  34,  48,  155,  157, 
344,  395,  404,  497 
Grimm’s  law,  93 
Gros  Ventre,  236 
Ground  painting,  310 
Ground  stone,  142,  144,  410,  444, 
492,  494,  495 
Gschnitz,  406 

Guatemala,  185,  223,  352,  362 
Guiana,  339,  383 
Guinea,  502 

Gunpowder,  426,  467,  474 
Gunz,  18,  21,  150 
Gypsy,  56 

Habit,  275,  283 

Hadrian,  tomb  of,  249 

Haeckel,  55 

Hafting,  168,  176 

Haida,  295,  356 

Hairiness,  39,  62  - 

Hair  texture,  39,  41,  45,  62 

Half-breeds,  81 

Half-hitch  coiling,  329 

Hallstadt,  424,  425,  460 

Hamites,  Hamitic,  96,  113,  119,  120, 

448,  450,  472,  497 
Hammock,  361,  381,  382 
Hammurabi,  451,  458 
Han,  463,  465-468,  470 

Harpoon,  165,  167,  348,  349,  389, 
390,  396,  406,  408,  411,  426,  428, 
429,  492 

Haruspicy,  209,  210 
Harvey,  125 
Hawaii,  69,  73 
Hawaiki,  491 
Head  hunting,  489,  490 
Hebrew,  Hebrews,  96,  103,  201,  207, 
211,  253,  265,  269,  282,  285,  286, 
451,  457,  458,  472,  473,  505.  See 
also  Jew 

Heddle,  222,  361 

Hellenism,  Hellenistic,  225,  255,  484 
Hellespont,  453 
Hemp,  415,  416,  466 
Hepatoscopy,  see  Liver  divination 


Heraldry,  203 

Herd  instinct,  59,  128,  277 
Heredity,  34,  72,  80,  239 
Hermes,  256 
Herodotus,  9 
Hesi  Dance,  309 
Hiaksai,  470 
Hieratic,  266,  449,  454 
Hieroglyphic  writing,  266,  443,  449, 
454,  456,  458 
Himyarites,  287 
Hindi,  221 

Hindu,  39,  41,  42,  44,  111,  126,  210, 
224,  231,  239,  247,  260,  287,  288, 
289,  346,  423,  472,  481,  482,  484, 
490,  504,  505,  506;  Hinduism,  476, 
480,  493.  See  also  India 
Hippopotamus,  152 
History,  482 

Hittites,  202,  223,  268,  269,  422,  423, 
442,  451,  453,  458,  506 
Hokan,  121 

Homer,  210,  278,  459,  479 
Homo  Heidelbergensis,  22;  Mousteri- 
ensis,  24;  Neandertalensis,  24,  27, 
29;  primi genius,  24;  sapiens,  27, 
29,  34,  155,  395 
Homonyms,  223 
Honan,  464,  466 
Hongkong,  68,  69 
Hopi,  135,  181,  187,  236,  252 
Hoplites,  129 

Horse,  152,  350,  384,  387,  414,  426, 
433,  448,  455,  458,  462,  463,  473, 
479,  497,  498 

Hottentot,  45,  52,  54,  71,  96,  120, 
121,  145,  502 
Hour,  207,  225 
Hrdlicka,  65 
Huastec,  135 
Huichol,  203 
Hun,  462,  465,  475 
Hundsteig,  157,  412 
Hungary,  Hungarian,  69,  87,  95, 
110,  424,  431,  432,  474,  476.  See 
also  Magyar 
Hupa,  313,  320 
Huxley,  55 

Hyksos,  104,  446,  448,  451,  458 

Iberian,  43,  432,  451 
Ibero-insular,  53 

Ideograms,  ideographic  writing,  223, 
224,  263,  291,  329,  449 
Independent  Evolutions,  260.  See 
also  Parallelism 
Igorot,  372 
Ikhnaton,  448,  455 


514 


INDEX 


Iliad,  422 
Illyrian,  460 

Imitation,  216,  239,  326,  327,  468 
Inca,  134,  242,  371,  378,  380,  382 
Incorporating  languages,  100,  102, 
104,  121 

India,  44,  46,  52,  53,  95,  96,  105, 

202,  204,  210,  211,  223,  251,  258, 

269,  287,  290,  353,  371,  406,  419, 

423,  426,  452,  454,  459,  462,  463, 

466,  467,  469,  472-486,  488-490, 
493,  499,  503,  504.  See  also 
Hindu 

Indian  Ocean,  45,  49 
Indie,  135,  452 
Indo-Afghan,  53 
Indo-Bactrian,  287 
Indo-Australian,  Indo-Australoid,  44- 
46,  55,  476,  477,  486,  488 
Indo-China,  46,  234,  260,  358,  463, 
469,  485,  486,  489 

Indo-European,  95,  96,  100,  111,  113, 
119,  120,  121,  124,  125,  135,  220, 
221,  286,  346,  450-453,  457,  459, 
460,  473,  477-479 
Indo-Germanic,  95 
Indo-Iranian,  Indo-Iranic,  221,  479 
Indo-Melanesian,  493 
Indo-Oceanic,  478,  489,  502 
Indonesia,  Indonesian,  44,  53,  487 
Indus  River,  479,  480 
Inflecting  languages,  100,  102,  220 
Inion,  31 

Initiation,  363,  364,  389,  438 
Inter-continental  distribution  of 
races,  49 

Intelligence  tests,  75 
Interglacial  periods,  18.  23,  250,  398 
Invention,  58,  142,  166,  167,  168, 
176,  179,  182,  185,  186,  191,  197, 

216,  239,  264,  268,  269,  271,  273, 

286,  311,  327,  328,  353,  371,  376, 

398,  418,  431,  438,  459,  461,  467, 

482,  493 

Iran,  Iranian,  Iranic,  95,  450-452, 
479 

Ireland,  246,  420,  432 
Iron,  332,  373,  419,  421,  422,  426, 
430,  433,  445,  447,  455,  458,  469, 

479,  488,  490,  496,  497,  498,  501, 

502,  505 

Iron  Age,  142,  146,  394,  408,  415, 
419-426,  431,  446,  450,  456,  470 
Iroquois,  100,  121,  347,  356,  359, 
386 

Irrationality,  277 
Irula,  41,  46,  476,  486 
Ishtar,  256 


Islam,  253,  332,  455 
Israel,  456 

Isolating  languages,  100,  102,  124 
Isolation,  182,  195,  197,  383,  492, 
501,  505 

Isthmus,  440,  44  i 

Italy,  Italian,  76-79,  209-217,  247, 

250,  253,  274,  400-402,  404,  417- 

419,  423,  424,  432,  497,  506 

Ivory,  166,  172,  175 

Jackal,  348,  429 
Jade,  466,  473 
Jahveh,  455 

Japan,  Japanese,  24,  35,  39,  40,  65, 
69,  97,  100,  107,  113,  119,  204, 
210,  224,  259,  343,  419,  424,  470- 
472,  475,  485,  504 
Java,  19,  258,  289,  489,  491 
Javelin,  165 
Jersey,  24 
Jerusalem,  453 
Jesuit,  204 
Jesus,  255,  257,  454 
Jeu-di,  256 

Jew,  Jewish,  44,  53,  57,  127,  183, 
257,  258,  423,  454,  484.  See  also 
Hebrew 
Jim  Crow,  58 
Jimsonweed,  306-316 
Johannesburg,  67 
Jumping  Dance,  312,  313 
Jupiter,  254,  256,  258 

Kalahari,  501 
Kamchadal,  475 
Kaph,  274 
Kapila,  480 
Kappa,  275 
Kardouchoi,  452 
Karma,  482 

Kassites,  451,  455,  458 
Katun,  376 
Kayak,  391 

Kelts,  Keltic,  95,  104,  105,  419,  424, 
460,  472 
Keres,  187 

Kesslerloch,  157,  177 
Keystone,  247 
Kharoshthi,  287 
Khmer,  485 
Khorasan,  417 

Kings,  Kingship,  441,  446,  478,  488, 
491,  499,  500,  502,  505 
Kiowa,  294 

Kitchenmiddens,  412,  429,  430,  435 
Kiva,  371 

Kjokkemoddings,  429 


INDEX 


515 


Klamath,  115 
Knossos,  456 
Kokorai,  470 

Kolarian,  41,  46,  98,  105,  477,  478, 
486 

Koph,  274,  275 
Koppa,  275 
Korai,  470 

Korea,  Korean,  96,  204,  291,  292, 
424,  468-471 
Koryak,  210,  475 
Kossseans,  451 
Krapina,  24,  32,  154 
Kris,  419 

Kuksu  Cult,  306-316 
Kurds,  53,  452 
Kwakiutl,  295,  356 
Kyoto,  69 

La  Ferrassie,  24,  157 
Lake-dwellings,  434,  463,  473 
La  Madeleine,  153,  175.  See  also 
Magdalenian 
La  Mairie,  176 
Lamp,  389,  390,  396 
Language,  57 
Laotse,  464 
La  Plata,  338,  339 
Lapp,  53,  475,  476 
La  Quina,  24 
La  Tene,  424,  425,  460 
Latin,  Latins,  76,  95,  103-105,  111, 
113,  119,  124,  126,  132,  136,  274, 
278,  346 

Latitude,  geographical,  68 
Laugerie  Basse  Haute,  27 
Laurel-leaf  blade,  162 
Law,  phonetic,  92;  scientific,  324 
Lead,  374 

League  of  Five  Nations,  356 
Least  common  multiples,  226 
Leaven,  463 

Le  Moustier,  24,  32,  153-179.  See 
also  Mousterian 
Lentils,  414 
Ligurians,  459 

Limiting  conditions,  226,  335 
Linguistic  family,  see  family,  lin¬ 
guistic 
Linnaeus,  49 
Lintel,  243,  244 
Lissotrichi,  54,  55 
Lithuanian,  95 

Litorina  litorea,  428;  period,  428, 
430 

Littoral,  53 

Liver  divination,  209,  210,  217,  248, 
438 


Llama,  342,  350,  361,  380 
Lolo,  95,  210,  468,  469 
London,  29 

Loom,  222,  332,  360-362,  379,  414 

Lophocomi,  54 

Los  Angeles,  310 

Lotus,  244 

Louisiana,  2 

Lourdes,  174 

Lucretius,  9 

Luiseno,  188,  310,  320 

Lunation,  374,  375,  376 

Lybians,  472 

Lydia,  451,  455 


Macedonia,  Macedonian,  104,  129, 
451,  484 

Mackenzie  (Yukon)  area,  295,  336, 
388,  389,  391 
Madagascar,  98,  488,  500 
Magdalenian,  27,  28,  146,  153-179, 
348,  390,  395,  396,  400,  402,  404- 
408,  411,  412,  427,  433,  496,  502 
Magellan,  Strait  of,  351 
Magic,  200,  219,  232,  254,  491,  494 
Magic  Flight,  198,  201,  218,  391 
Magism,  452 

Maglemose,  396,  408,  410,  412,  428, 
429 

Magnetic  needle,  467 
Magyar,  95,  110,  474.  See  also  Hun¬ 
garian 

Maidu,  121,  307,  309 
Maize,  185,  218,  237,  341,  353,  379, 
382,  467,  468,  490 
Malay,  52,  54,  488,  489 
Malayan,  49,  149 

Malayo-Polynesian,  98,  100,  119, 

121,  485,  487 

Malay  Peninsula,  45,  98,  258,  290, 
486,  487 

Malaysian,  Malaysia,  41,  44,  46,  136, 
209,  222,  223,  257,  289,  423,  463, 
469,  471,  472,  486-490,  500 
Mammoth,  151,  152,  174,  175 
Manchu,  95,  291,  454,  465,  466,  474, 
476 

Maneh,  207 
Mangyan,  290 
Manila,  68,  69,  290 
Manioc,  382 
Marduk,  256 

Marginal  areas,  cultures,  335,  383, 
388,  437,  440,  469,  473,  475,  478, 
503 

Mars,  254,  255 
Marseilles,  424 


516 


INDEX 


Mas  d’Azil,  157,  406 
Masks,  187,  294,  356,  363,  366,  369, 
502 

Masonry,  370,  371,  380,  385,  418, 
426,  427,  430,  447,  498 
Mathematics,  482 

Matrilinear  descent,  232-238,  331, 
355-360,  490,  493,  500 
Mauer,  22 
Mauretanians,  496 
Maya,  100,  105,  113,  116,  135,  197, 
205,  206,  223,  225,  226,  228,  230- 
232,  239,  246,  261,  262,  266,  268, 

333,  338,  347,  349,  358,  362,  368, 

369,  371,  372,  376-378,  438 
Measles,  66 
Measures,  454 
Medes,  452 

Medicine-man,  see  Shaman 
Mediterranean  (race),  41-43,  55,  77, 
82,  457,  505,  506 

Mediterranean  Sea,  area,  43,  49,  81, 
120,  222,  250,  287,  335,  398,  402, 

404,  419,  425,  430,  435,  454,  474, 

476,  485,  499,  504 

Megalith,  426,  433,  460,  471,  496, 
497 

Melanesia,  Melanesian,  41,  44,  52, 
55,  98,  227,  232,  234,  236,  487, 
489,  490,  493,  502,  504 
Melanochroid,  53,  55 
Mena,  434,  435 
Mencius,  464 
Menhir,  416 
Mentone,  27,  29 
Memphis,  70 
Mercre-di,  256 
Mercury,  254-256 
Mesha,  269 

Mesolithic,  396,  409,  410 
Mesocephalic,  37 
Metal  Age,  141,  149 
Metallurgy,  332,  341,  373 
Mesopotamia,  202,  215,  247,  250, 
440,  441,  451-453,  473 
Mesozoic,  15 

Mexico,  Mexican,  65,  105,  185,  203, 
228,  229,  236,  244,  251,  260,  261, 

290,  295,  310,  329,  332,  338,  340, 

342,  351,  356,  357,  361,  369,  370, 

372,  374,  379,  384,  385,  387,  431, 

440,  442,  504 
Mexico,  Gulf  of,  369 
Microliths,  406,  407,  428 
Micronesia,  Micronesian,  98,  487, 
490 

Middle  America,  205,  206,  213,  340- 
342,  352-358,  361,  363,  367,  368, 


370,  371,  373,  381,  383,  385,  38 
391,  440-442 

Middle  Kingdom,  446,  451 
Middle  Stone  Age,  396,  409 
Midianite,  456 

Migration,  195,  214,  228,  461,  472, 
491 

Milan,  250 

Milk,  463,  468 

Millet,  414,  446,  463,  502 

Milton,  115 

Mina,  204 

Mindel,  18,  150 

Mindoro,  290 

Ming,  468 

Minoan,  423,  456-459,  479,  480 

Minos,  456 

Minuscules,  281 

Minusinsk,  462 

Miocene,  18,  148 

Mission  style,  251 

Missing  link,  11 

Missionaries,  204,  333 

Mississippi  River,  294,  340,  385; 

valley,  386 
Mit,  259 

Mitanni,  451,  458 

Mithra,  Mithraism,  258,  259 

Miwok,  236,  307 

Moab,  269 

Mogul,  251,  475 

Mohammedan,  Mohammedanism,  96, 
198,  223,  251,  258,  259,  290,  451, 
463,  475,  476,  483,  484,  488-490, 
497,  500,  504,  506 
Mohave,  188,  190,  236,  311 
Moi,  41,  46,  486 

Moiety,  232-238,  355,  360,  490,  492, 
493,  494 
Mon,  485 
Mon-Khmer,  98 
Money,  480 

Mongol,  95,  210,  214,  251,  291,  343, 
424,  454,  462,  465,  466,  468,  473, 
474,  475,  484,  485,  487 
Mongolio,  204,  462,  485 
Mongolian,  30,  35,  44,  54,  343,  476, 
477,  485 

Mongoloid,  39,  41,  42,  44,  46,  49,  52, 
53,  55,  62,  343,  475,  486-488.  504, 
505 

Monolatry,  455 
Monosyllabism,  124 
Monotheism,  448,  455 
Moor,  Moorish,  250,  496 
Moravia,  24,  29,  432 
Mores,  128 

Morocco,  Moroccans,  211,  448,  496 


INDEX  •  517 


Mortillet,  Gabriel  de,  153 
Mosaic  law,  184 
Mother  goddess,  455 
Mother  tongue,  94,  96 
Mound  Builders,  212,  373,  386 
Mourning  Anniversary,  303-316 
Mousterian,  23,  25,  45,  153-179,  395, 
398,  400,  405,  406,  427,  433,  444 
Mouth,  374,  376 
Mulatto,  80 
Muller,  F.,  54 
Muller,  Sophus,  420,  435 
Munda-Kol,  98,  486 
Muskogean,  100,  359 
Mutations,  239 
Mycenae,  246,  420,  423 
Mycenaean,  420,  457,  458,  459 


Nabonidus,  434 
Nabu,  256 

Nahua,  Nahuatl,  105,  116,  134,  338, 
346,  347,  359.  See  also  Aztec 
Napoleon,  5 
Naram-sin,  434 
Nasal  index,  38 
Nashville,  70 
Natal,  67 

Nationality,  56,  111 
Naturalism  in  art,  177,  402,  408, 
456,  458,  502 

Navaho,  116,  187,  188,  190,  236,  252, 
296 

Neandertal,  32,  48,  64,  110,  139,  155, 
395,  396,  400,  404,  405,  472; 
Neandertaloid,  403,  497 
Near  East,  207,  417,  426,  437,  442, 
443,  474 

Nebuchadnezzar,  434,  451 
Needle,  165,  349,  396,  412,  423 
Negrillo,  502 

Negrito.  39,  41,  45,  46,  52,  55,  73, 
486,  490 

Negro,  3,  28,  32,  36,  39,  41,  44,  45, 
52,  58,  77,  79,  84,  105,  106,  111, 
196,  205,  477,  495-502,  505 
Negroid,  30,  34,  38,  40,  41,  42,  45, 
49,  53,  55,  62,  73,  155,  344,  395, 
404,  476,  486,  487,  488,  490,  492, 
497,  503,  504,  505 

Neolithic,  30,  142,  144,  146,  168, 
170,  177,  344,  348,  394,  395,  402, 
406,  408,  410-416,  426,  429,  432, 
433,  434,  435,  437,  438,  442,  444- 
446,  450,  456,  448-460,  462,  473, 
478,  492,  496,  501,  504;  Early 
Neolithic,  143,  410,  412,  413,  426, 
128,  429 ;  Full  Neolithic,  143,  145, 


396,  410,  413,  416,  426,  430,  435, 
446,  450 

Nestorian,  291,  454,  475 
Net,  349 

Nevada,  296,  303 
New  Empire,  446,  448 
New  Grange,  420 

New  Guinea,  45,  98,  213,  232,  234, 
487,  490,  492 

New  Mexico,  187,  251,  294,  296,  304, 
310 

New  Orleans,  70 
New  Stone  Age,  see  Neolithic 
New-year  rites,  312-315 
New  York,  78,  79 
Nicaragua,  336 
Nicknames,  236 
Nicobar,  486 
Niger,  502 

Nile,  105,  440,  442,  444,  445,  457, 
497,  504 
Nippur,  247 
Noah,  96 

Nordic,  39,  41-43,  55,  82,  460,  476, 
506 

Northeast  area,  Northern  Woodland, 
295,  336,  341,  355,  385,  386,  389, 
391 

North  Sea,  43,  419,  427 
Northwest  area,  North  Pacific 
Coast,  235,  253,  295,  317,  336,  340, 
355,  357,  360,  361,  363,  368,  373, 
375,  387,  388,  391,  459 
Norwegian,  111 
Nubian,  54 
Numbers,  holy,  252 
Numerals,  Arabic,  230,  275,  482;  po¬ 
sition,  230;  Roman,  230 
Nutka,  295 


Oats,  415,  416,  468 
Obercassel,  27,  28 
Oblique  eye,  44 

Obstacle  Pursuit,  see  Magic  Flight 
Occident,  467,  471,  476,  477 
Oceania,  44,  45,  49,  98,  235,  259, 
471,  478,  487,  492,  505 
Odyssey,  422 
Ofnet,  157 
Ogham,  425 

Ohio  Valley,  212,  373,  386 
Old  Kingdom,  446,  448 
Old  Stone  Age,  see  Palaeolithic 
Oligocene,  18,  148 
Omaha,  294,  303 
Orang-utan,  13,  32,  64 
Oregon,  303,  313 


518 


INDEX 


Orient,  395,  413,  415,  417,  418,  426, 
427,  430-432,  435,  437,  438,  457, 
459,  461,  462,  479,  499 
Oriental  mirage,  437 
Orinoco,  338 
Orthodox,  257 
Ostrich,  497,  501 
Overblowing,  227 
Overlapping,  36,  39 
Over-tones,  227 


Pagoda,  460 
Palseo-Asiatic,  475 
Palaeolithic,  23,  63,  142-179,  345, 
348,  350,  390,  393-410,  413,  426, 
433,  470,  495,  501,  504;  Lower, 
151,  154,  161,  172,  395-410,  411, 
426,  444-446,  477;  Upper,  27,  29, 
151,  154,  155,  161,  165,  395-410, 
411,  412,  426,  427,  444,  445,  478, 
496,  504 
Palaeozoic,  15 
Palawan,  290 

Palestine,  183,  305,  440,  454,  457 
Pali,  11,  291 
Panama,  351,  440,  441 
Pan’s  pipes,  226,  382 
Pantheon,  249,  251 
Papago,  184 

Paper,  426,  468;  money,  468,  474 
Papua,  Papuan,  45,  52,  54,  55,  98, 
487,  492 

Parallelism,  Parallels,  197,  198,  216- 
240,  261,  262,  268,  269,  281,  327- 
329;  in  language,  119;  primary, 
223,  225;  secondary,  220 
Paris,  214 

Parsis,  Parsecs,  302,  452,  481 
Parthenon,  244 
Parthia,  452 

Patagonia,  Patagonian  area,  53,  338, 
345,  373,  378,  383,  384,  387 
Patrilinear  descent,  232,  331,  344- 
360,  493,  500 

Pattern,  130,  199,  367,  467,  481, 
482,  493,  494,  498 
Patwin,  307,  309 
Pawnee,  369 
Pea,  414 
Peat,  428 

Pebbles,  painted,  407 
Pegu,  485 
Peking,  461 

Penutian  languages,  125 
Pericles,  Periclean,  83 
Perigord,  27,  29 
Permutations,  225,  376 


Peripheral,  see  marginal 


Persia, 

Persian, 

95, 

104, 

204, 

221, 

259, 

261, 

302, 

417, 

423, 

447, 

450, 

451, 

452, 

454, 

459, 

479, 

484 

Peru, 

105, 

125, 

203, 

228, 

240, 

260, 

327, 

338, 

341, 

348, 

361, 

362, 

369, 

370, 

372, 

374, 

378 

-381, 

440, 

442, 

504 

Peschel,  51 
Pessimism,  479,  482 
Phalanx,  129 
Phidias,  425 

Philippines,  45,  209,  210,  289,  290, 
335,  372 

Philistine,  184,  423,  457,  458 
Philology,  485 

Philosophy,  478,  479,  480,  482,  483 
Phoenicia,  Phoenician,  96,  184,  207, 
265,  269,  270-272,  274,  285,  442, 
438,  451,  454,  455,  457,  505 
Phonetic  law,  94 
Phonetic  writing,  263,  449 
Phrygians,  452 

Pictographs,  picture-writing,  224, 
263,  378 
Pig,  see  swine 

Piltdown,  15,  22,  23,  26,  64,  110,  154 
Pilum,  129 

Pima,  181,  187,  190,  356 
Pipe,  211 

Pitch,  absolute,  226,  227 
Pithecanthropus,  14,  19,  21-23,  26, 
30,  32,  64,  139,  140,  147,  154 
Pit-loom,  499 
Pizzaro,  203 

Plains  area,  236,  294,  295,  336,  340, 
355,  366,  368,  369,  386 
Planets,  225,  254,  377 
Plateau  area,  236,  295,  336,  388,  391 
Platinum,  373 
Plato  425 

Pleistocene,  18,  19,  26,  110,  147-150, 
154,  344,  404,  406,  444 
Pliocene,  18,  148 

Plow,  416,  418,  423,  462,  469,  479 
Poles,  Poland,  76,  77,  78,  401 
Polished  stone,  see  ground  stone 
Polygyny,  500 

Polynesia,  Polynesian,  39,  41,  42, 
46,  52,  53,  65,  67,  98,  124,  145, 
182,  232,  236,  260,  350,  487-491, 
505 

Polysynthetic  languages,  100,  102 

Porno,  120,  307 

Pompeii,  256 

Poncho,  363 

Pope,  276 

yPorcelain,  426,  448,  467 


INDEX 


519 


Portugal,  Portuguese,  213,  246,  407, 
420,  432,  489 
Postglacial,  28 
Potato,  280,  468 
Potlatch,  388 

Pottery,  143,  188,  189,  211,  315,  316, 
319,  353,  370,  379,  383,  385,  389, 
410,  411,  416,  426,  427,  429,  434, 
441,  444-446,  448,  450,  456,  458, 
467,  469,  470,  489,  491,  492 
Potter’s  wheel,  418,  425,  456,  458 
Predmost,  29,  157,  403,  412 
Predynastic,  443,  444,  446 
Pre-Chellean,  154,  399 
Pre-Mousterian,  398,  400 
Priest,  188,  209,  254,  267,  294,  358, 
363,  367,  369,  381,  469,  479,  481, 
482 

Primates,  11,  13,  152 
Printing,  468 
Prismatic  flake,  162,  164 
Prognathism,  24,  30,  38,  41,  56,  62 
Progress,  292 
Promiscuity,  331 
Prophets,  455 
Protestantism,  258 
Proto-American,  388 
Proto-Caucasian,  44,  344,  476,  477 
Proto-Mongoloid,  343,  344 
Proto-Neolithic,  409,  410 
Proverbs,  196,  400 
Psychology,  225,  226,  237,  239,  325, 
362,  447 

Ptolemaic,  208,  255,  447 
Ptolemy,  255 
Puberty  rites,  365,  366 
Pueblo,  181,  184,  187,  188,  190,  192, 
296,  305,  332,  356,  358,  359,  366- 
370,  377,  378,  384 
Punjab,  287,  480 
Pulse,  65 
Punic,  270 
Pygmies,  45,  502 

Pyramid,  242,  358,  371,  386,  433, 
‘446-447,  458 

Pyrenees,  104,  400,  406,  407 

Quadroon,  80 
Quipus,  378 
Quaternary,  18,  149 
Quebec,  217 

Quechua,  100,  105,  13^,  346,  347 


Race,  326,  460;  classification,  34-57; 
concept,  3-6,  56,  57,  396,  481,  504- 
506;  fossil,  11-33;  problems,  58- 
86 


Radiations,  437,  497 
Rain-coat,  469 
Rajah,  210 
Rameses,  422 

Rationalization,  59,  60,  277,  281, 
283,  438 

Rattan,  489,  503,  562 
Raven  legends,  218 
Realism  in  art,  see  naturalism 
Reason,  276,  277,  292 
Rebirth,  479,  482 

Rebus  writing,  223,  263-268,  291, 
329,  330,  378 
Recent,  18,  149,  445 
Red  Sea,  287,  451 
Reform,  275,  276 

Reindeer,  151,  152,  154,  165,  176, 
177,  406,  475 
Rejects,  144 

Relativity  of  standards,  127 
Renaissance,  284 
Resist  dyeing,  223 
Respiration,  65 

Retouching,  161,  395,  398,  400 
Revolution,  Russian,  276 
Rhine,  400 
Rhinoceros,  151,  152 
Rhodesia,  25 ;  Rhodesian  Man,  25, 
26  64.  497 

Rice,’  344,  372,  363,  468,  479,  485, 
490 

Richmond,  321 

Riding  gear,  387 

Rime,  468 

Riss,  18,  150 

River  Drift,  151 

Roads,  380,  424 

Rock  shelters,  501 

Rocky  mountains,  202,  294,  386 

Rodents,  11,  293 

Roman,  Rome,  77,  82,  104,  126,  129, 
190,  195,  198,  209,  211,  230,  248, 

250,  256,  265,  269,  273,  274,  305, 

395,  419,  425,  447,  474,  499;  Em¬ 

pire,  204,  207,  258,  451,  463,  466 
Romance,  95,  104,  121 
Romanesque,  249,  250 
Rostro-carinate  implements,  148 
Runic  writing,  425 
Russia,  Russian,  4P,  53,  95,  203.  213, 
285,  398,  401,  427,  432,  462,  473- 
475 

Rutot,  147 
Rye,  415,  416 

Sabseans,  287 
Sabbath,  257,  258 

Sacramento  River,  367;  Valley,  3^9 


520 


INDEX 


Sacrifice,  469,  479,  491;  human,  341, 
363,  369,  370 

Safety-pin,  418,  419,  424,  427,  431- 
433 

Sahara,  496 
Sakai,  46,  486 
Sakhalien,  470,  475 
Salish,  120,  295,  356 
Samoyed,  96,  474,  475 
Sandals,  363 

San  Francisco  Bay,  307,  320 
San  Joaquin  River,  307 
Sankhya  philosophy,  480 
Sanskrit,  103,  124,  126,  136,  220, 
287,  289,  346,  347,  477,  479 
Santa  Barbara  Islands,  384 
Santander,  157 
Saracen,  250,  419 
Sardinia,  432 
Sargon,  434,  435,  451,  458 
Sassanian,  250,  4C2 
Saturn,  254,  255,  258 
Saul,  423 

Scandinavia,  Scandinavian,  43,  284, 
395,  408,  427,  428,  430,  431,  432, 
435,  460,  475,  505 
Scapulimancy,  210,  469 
Schoetensack,  21 
Schweizersbild,  157,  412 
Scimitar,  419 

Scotch,  Scots,  Scotland,  28,  117, 

190,  408,  412 

Sculpture,  371,  396,  418,  484,  488, 
491 

Scythian,  459 
Semang,  486 

Semite,  Semitic,  53,  96,  100,  103, 
111,  113,  119-121,  135,  224,  268, 
272,  274,  285,  286,  289,  448-454, 
472,  473,  482,  484,  505 
Senegal,  502 
Senoi,  41,  46,  486 
Sequoya,  225 
Serb,  43 
Shabattum,  257 
Shakespeare,  115 
Shansi,  464 

Shaman,  303-311,  349,  363,  366,  367 
Shan-Siamese,  95,  465,  485 
Shantung,  464 

Sheep,  210,  414,  415,  429,  441,  446, 
450,  463,  473,  498 
Shekel,  207 

Shell  Mounds,  212,  429,  434,  470 

Shensi,  464,  466 

Shield,  502 

Shi-Hwang-ti,  5,  465 

Shinra,  470 


Shinto,  471,  483 
Shoshonean,  135 

Shoulder  blade  divination,  see  Scap¬ 
ulimancy 
Siam,  486 
Si-an-fu,  461 
Sib,  232 

Siberia,  53,  210,  213,  218,  222,  350, 
364,  390,  398,  432,  462,  475,  476 
Sicilian,  Sicily,  250,  404,  432,  435, 
459 

Sickles,  462 
Sierra  Nevada,  303 
Silk,  426,  465 
Silver,  373,  374 
Sinai,  417,  447 

Sinew-backed  bow,  316,  391,  503 
Singapore,  68 
Singhalese,  135 
Sinitic,  95,  100,  485 
Siouan,  100,  135,  253;  Sioux,  294 
Singenstein,  412 
Sivaism,  478 
Sixty  in  measures,  207 
Skin  boat,  389,  390 
Skull  capacity,  21,  23,  24,  38,  39, 
137 

Skull  cult,  478,  489,  490 

Slav,  Slavic,  76,  95,  111,  257 

Slavery,  500 

Sled,  389,  390 

Smallpox,  66,  69 

Smiths,  497 

Smoking,  see  tobacco 

Snails,  408 

Soffit,  246 

Solomon  Islands,  226 
Solstices,  375,  388 
Solutre,  153,  157 

Solutrean,  27,  29,  153,  395,  396,  400, 
401,  403,  406,  411,  412,  496 
Somaliland,  448 
Somatology,  5 
Sonant  sounds,  93 
Sothic  year,  443 

Soul,  171,  187,  349,  364,  482,  483 
Sound  shift,  93 

Southeast  area,  Southern  Woodland, 
295,  336,  358,  360,  373,  385, 

386 

Southwest  area,  181,  184,  190,  211, 
235,  294,  296,  304,  317,  336,  340, 
341,  355,  356-358,  360,  361,  369- 
372,  375,  384,  387,  389,  431,  459 
Spanish-American,  310 
Spain,  Spaniards,  Spanish,  69,  119, 
121,  134,  203,  212,  223,  250,  251, 
289,  290,  361,  384,  387,  398,  400- 


INDEX 


521 


402,  404,  407,  408,  417-419,  432, 
435,  454,  489,  496 
Spanning,  242 
Sparta,  129 

Spear  thrower,  166,  349,  390,  396, 
495 

Specialization,  311,  317,  354,  367 

Spindle,  362 

Spinning,  222 

Split,  446 

Spy,  24,  34 

Stability  of  speech,  104 
St.  Acheul,  157,  398 
Stations,  151,  157 
Stature,  30,  37,  41 
Steel,  422,  423,  426,  456 
Stock,  linguistic,  see  Family,  lingu¬ 
istic 

Stone  Age,  141,  145,  396,  489,  496 
Stone-Bronze  period,  417 
Stopped  sounds,  92 
Straits  Settlements,  68 
Stratification,  319,  445,  450;  stra¬ 
tigraphy,  319,  324 
St.  Sophia,  250,  251 
Stucken,  201 

Sudan,  39,  52,  54,  96,  497,  499,  500 
Suez,  441 

Sumatra,  248,  289,  486,  487,  489 
Sumer,  Sumerian,  113,  £03,  223,  266, 
268,  434,  438,  441,  442,  448,  449, 
452,  453,  458,  463,  472,  506 
Sun  Dance,  294,  369 
Sungari  river,  470 
Superior,  Lake,  421 
Supraorbital  ridges,  21,  24,  29 
Surd  sounds,  93 
Survival,  281 
Susa,  449,  450 
Sussex,  22 
Suwanee  river,  3 
Swastika,  123,  333 
Sweden,  428 

Swine,  414,  415,  441,  450,  463,  490, 
491 

Swiss,  Switzerland,  111,  157,  177, 
412,  415,  421,  424,  431,  432 
Sword,  418,  419,  432 
Syllabic  writing,  224,  226 
Symbiosis,  412 
Synthetic  languages,  220 
Syria,  250,  258,  270,  291,  402,  407 
440,  441,  451,  454,  496;  Syriac, 
291 

System,  266,  267 ;  systemization, 

480 

Szechuan,  468 


Taboo,  491,  494 
Tagalog,  290 
Tagbanua,  290 
T’ai,  95,  485,  486 
Taj  Mahal,  251 
Talent,  207 
Tamerlane,  475 
Tang,  465,  468 
Tano,  187 
Taos,  181 
Tapioca,  382 
Tapuya,  100 
Tardenoisian,  407 
Taro,  490,  491 

Tasmania,  32,  39,  45,  55,  222,  329, 
495 

Tatar,  473 

Tectiform  paintings,  170 
Telegrams,  283 
Tell-el-Amarna,  454 
Temperature,  65 

Temple,  358,  363,  368,  369,  371,  381, 
385,  386,  441,  479 
Tenochtitlan,  359 
Teocentli,  353 
Tepecano,  310 
Tertiary,  18,  23,  148 
Testament,  Old,  210,  422,  435 
Tewa,  187,  236 
Texas,  236,  385 

Textile  patterns,  221,  223;  processes, 
222 

Thor,  256 

Thracians,  452 

Thutmose  III,  447,  458 

Tibet,  204,  210,  248,  290,  485 

Tibeto-Burman,  95,  477,  485 

Tie  dyeing,  223 

Tierra  del  Fuego,  222,  384 

Tiger,  152 

Tigris,  203,  448,  451,  452,  453 
Time  reckoning,  225 
Tin,  227.  228,  373,  417,  421,  430,  431, 
447,  449,  478 
Tipi,  294,  340,  386,  391 
Titicaca,  Lake,  380 
Tlingit,  117,  295,  356 
Toala,  41,  46,  486 
Tobacco,  211,  212,  302,  354,  467 
Toda,  481 
Tokyo,  69 
Toloache,  310 
Tomahawk  pipe,  212 
Tonalamatl,  376 
Torres  Straits,  492 
Totem,  232-238,  331,  355-360,  490, 
492,  493,  500,  501 
Tourassian,  406 


522 


INDEX 


Town  life,  372,  385,  386 
Tradition,  239,  326 
Travois,  387 
Treadle  shed,  222 
Tribe,  232 
Triiiil,  21 

Tropical  Forest  area,  338,  339,  342 
355,  361,  369,  370,  373,  378,  381, 
382,  501 
Trousers,  460 

Troy,  418,  423,  433,  441,  451,  457, 
458 

Tsimshian,  295,  356 
Ts’in,  465 
Ttibatulabal,  135 
Tuberculosis,  69 
Tungus,  95,  474,  475 
Tunis,  404 
Tupi,  100,  105,  352 
Turco-Tartar,  53 

Turk,  Turkey,  Turkish,  95,  103,  203, 
287,  424,  450,  452,  453,  474,  475, 
476,  484 

Turkistan,  204,  287,  441,  449,  454, 
455,  462,  473,  484 
Turquoise,  187,  188 
Twins,  identical,  71 
Two  Rivers,  440 
Typhoid,  69 
Tyrrhenians,  248 


Unconscious,  125-131 
Ugrian,  53 
Ungulates,  11,  29 
Uigur,  291 

Unilateral  descent,  232-238,  858,  493 
Ulotrichi,  54,  55 

United  States,  67,  68,  69,  70,  73, 
98,  106,  107,  133,  181,  213,  268, 
296,  334,  342,  358 

Ural-Altaic.  96,  100,  118,  450,  453, 
472,  474,  475 
Uralic,  95,  432,  462,  474 
Urus,  see  Bos  primigenius 
Uto-Aztecan,  121,  352 


Vau,  278 
Vault,  243,  346 

Vedas,  479,  480;  Vedic,  423,  479, 
480,  484 

Vedda,  39,  41,  46,  55,  476,  486 

Vei,  225 

Vendre-di,  256 

Venus,  254,  255,  256,  377 

Victory  Dance,  300,  302 

Vigesimal,  231 


Virama,  288 
Vocabulary,  size  of,  114 
Vowel  points,  286,  288 

Wagon,  416 

Wailaki,  207 

Walloon,  111 

Washington,  281 

Waterloo,  5 

Wealth,  295,  388 

Wealth-display  dances,  306-316 

Week,  226,  241,  252-262,  326 

Wei  valley,  465 

Welsh,  104,  117 

West  African  area,  196,  205,  225, 
234,  501,  502 
West  Indies,  211,  339 
Wheat,  344,  414,  415,  426,  441,  446, 
450,  460,  463 

Wheel,  123,  362,  416,  424,  430,  441, 
448,  462 

Whipping,  363,  365 
Whistle,  165 
White  Huns,  475 
Willendorf,  173 
Windbreak,  495,  501 
Wissler,  337 
Woden,  256,  257 
Wolf,  348 
Woodward,  22 
Wool,  361,  463,  468,  479 
World-renewing  rites,  312-315 
Writing,  223,  224,  228,  263-292,  333, 
418,  426,  431,  433,  435,  441,  442, 
445,  446,  449,  454,  463,  469,  471, 
478-480,  482,  486,  488,  498,  500. 
See  also  Alphabet,  Pictographs, 
Phonetic 

Wurm,  18,  23,  150,  405,  445 
Wiirtemburg,  412 

Xanthochroid,  53,  55 
Xylophone,  502 

Yamato,  470 
Yangtse  river,  465 
Yellow  river,  461 
Yenisei,  462 
Yeniseian,  475 
Y-grec,  279 

Yokuts,  125,  188,  307,  310 

Yoldia  arctica,  427 ;  Sea,  427,  428 

Yucatan,  205,  231,  246 

Yuki,  307 

Yukaghir,  475 

Yuma,  311 

Yunnan,  486 

Yurok,  313,  320 


INDEX 


523 


Zapotec,  338 
Zayin,  278 
Zero,  230,  482,  485 
Zeta,  278 
Zeus,  256 


Zinc,  417 

Zodiac,  204,  254,  448 
Zoroastrianism,  252 
Zulu,  116 

Zuni,  181,  187,  252 


t 


Date  Due 


